Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that Volkswagen had installed a secret software cheat in nearly 500,000 of their diesel engine vehicles.
The scale of the Volkswagen emissions fraud is expanding, a black, dirty sinkhole that is dragging a spirit of innovation, the CEO, billions of dollars, and millions of cars into an inescapable mire. And, over a week after the initial revelation, things are not looking up.
Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced additional vehicle emissions testing in response to Volkswagen cheating at the tests since 2008, though many questions remain about which cars, and how many, will ultimately be subjected to them.
This was supposed to be a good week for Volkswagen. Today, they were going to unveil a brand-new Passat in (arguably) the hippest area of the United States, Brooklyn. As of this writing, that event is still scheduled, but the joyous unveiling of a new car has been overshadowed by a smog of scandal.
Building cars in Mexico is nothing new; Volkswagen, Nissan, and Toyota all have plants south of the border. But building sports cars in Mexico is less common, and right now the Vuhl 05 has that stage pretty much all to itself. (To put a fine point on it, the car was designed and assembled in Mexico, with the body being manufactured in Canada and about 40% of its parts coming from the United Kingdom.)