Michael Horn, head of VW of America, in better times for the automaker when it was winning awards. Now the company is returning them.
The fallout for Volkswagen is spreading behind its diesel-powered vehicles as a major automotive publication announced today it will not consider any VW or Audi vehicles for one of its major awards.
Ward’s Communications said it won’t be allowing any of the maker engines to be part of its annual 10 best engines competition. The automaker just gave back its car of the year award last week and it’s likely this is just beginning for the automaker.
“We discussed it at length,” Wardsauto.com senior editor Tom Murphy told the Detroit Free Press. “What VW admitted to is very troubling, and it still hasn’t come clean with all the details. There are too many unknowns.”
This year, the maker would have had four VW and Audi vehicles eligible for the 2016 award, three gasoline and one electric. Additionally, VW returned three awards it won in previous year for its diesels.
VW was planning to make extensive use of the new EA288 diesel and now it's recalling it in Europe and it will be shortly in the U.S.
It’s not honors from Ward’s that Volkswagen is either returning. Last month, The 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI and 2010 Audi A3 TDI were bestowed Green Car of the Year awards by the publication.
“Rescinding the Green Car of the Year awards for the VW Jetta TDI and Audi A3 TDI is unfortunate but appropriate,” said Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of the Green Car Journal. The company returned three awards from Cars.com.
It returned the 2012 and 2015 “Eco-Friendly Car” awards for the Passat TDI, and a “Best Bet Award” for the Jetta TDI. “In light of the recent action by EPA concerning our 2.0L TDI vehicles and associated allegations, out of respect for you and your highly influential website, we feel it best at this time to return [the awards],” said Volkswagen CEO Michael Horn in a statement posted on Cars.com.
(Mirror, mirror … who’s the greenest of them all. Click Here for details.)
The automaker also sent back the “Outstanding Environmentally Friendly Award” the Jetta TDI received in 2009 from the Rocky Mountain Automotive Press
The German automaker has been reeling since it was discovered last month that it “revolutionary clean” diesels for the last 10 years had been cheating to pass emissions tests while meeting performance standards it touted.
More than 11 million vehicles and three generations of diesel engines were part of the scandal. Much of the company’s senior management has either resigned, as was the case with former CEO Martin Winterkorn, or fired.
In the U.S., the top official, Michael Horn survived, but got a supervisor. He’s spent much of his time either apologizing to a variety of groups, including during testimony before Congress. He’s also sent letters to the owners of the affected vehicles apologizing and letting them know the company is working on a fix for their vehicles.
The old saying goes when a door closes a window opens, and that’s certainly true now, but it’s not a window VW is crawling through but its competition.
(Germany orders first recall of VW diesels. For more, Click Here.)
In the case of the Ward’s honors, its diesel and EV powerplants for Volkswagen and Audi models could be supplanted by potentially some of the following:
- Volvo’s turbocharged and supercharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder
- Chevrolet Malibu’s turbocharged four-cylinder.
- Honda Civic’s turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder
- Ford Shelby GT350 Mustang’s 5.2-liter V-8
- Nissan Titan XD’s Cummins 5.0-liter V8 diesel
Not only that, because of the negative publicity, VW is also planning to de-emphasize its diesel products in the U.S. And in that instance too, competitors are ready to step into the void VW will create, starting with General Motors.
Mark Reuss, GM’s executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain, said recently the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze Diesel and the diesel program for Cadillac are a top priority.
“The Cruze Diesel is too good not to do it,” he said, adding Cadillac is developing four- and six-cylinder turbodiesels mainly for the European market, although the engines are expected to be launched in the States as well.
(To see more about VW’s plans for its diesel program, Click Here.)
GM’s diesel program isn’t just for cars, but also its new midsize trucks are getting the 2.8-liter four cylinder Duramax diesel. Anita Burke, chief engineer for GM’s midsize trucks, told TheDetroitBureau.com that to company expects get strong sales results with the diesel-powered version of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon. GM’s expecting “on the order of” 10% of all sales will including the diesel.