The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal, TLDR’D
By Sabrina Wang
November 2024
Definitions: diesel vehicles - vehicles that have a compression-ignited injection system instead of a spark-ignited system (spoiler: they’re not any better for the environment than gasoline vehicles).
It’s easy to say there are tons of pressing matters in the world, yet in the eyes of DECA Inc., nothing is more vital than ethics. Whether it's an exam or case study, DECA will always put ethics first over profit or consumers. So then, what happens when you receive an ethics-related case and are scratching your head, thinking of ways to prove your ideas effectively? Let’s explain this using Volkswagen’s biggest screw-up: The 2015 Emissions Scandal.
Before we start, multiple failures should be addressed to explain just how one company can manage to effectively tarnish its legacy for years to come. The general summary is that Volkswagen had secretly, and with the approval of higher-ups, installed “defeat devices” in around 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide, which detected when a car went under emissions testing and adjusted the performance to meet the environmental standards. You can already identify their fuck ups, as not only did they intentionally try to cheat out the legal system and release 40 TIMES the legal limit for oxide pollutants, but the worst part is they got caught while doing so.
“We’ve totally screwed up”, said the VW America boss Michael Horn before bidding farewell to his job. What came after was the loss of customers, and shareholders, a blow in the diesel market, and some changes in EU testing rules, all of which can probably be found online. Now with the given information taken into account, let's do a deep dive into why this decision was horrendously problematic from a business kid and a consumer-based perspective.
Introducing Jim, a 30-year-old man who wants to buy his first car (VW) in 2015. Just before he goes car shopping, breaking news comes on saying that the company is being exposed for hiding their emissions which were 40 times above the limit. Reasons why no 30-year-old man (or anyone) would want to buy VW anymore? Greenhouse gas emissions are a huge problem and VW just showed incredible disregard for that, VW’s crisis management sucked and they refused to owe up to it like some 8-year-old until they lost billions; and now if anyone owns a VW, oftentimes the first thing that comes to mind is said scandal. A likely scenario is that even if Jim liked the VW enough to buy it, he’d probably get ridiculed by his co-workers and seen as some earth hater, even if he disliked VW’s actions.
Since business kids like jargon, let me throw in one: Greenwashing, AKA when a company is deceiving the audience with green PR while no meaningful action is being done. Greenwashing is usually bad when a business gets discovered doing it (shocking), like VW in this case because now it’s hard to return to that clean image it had before. Especially when it is a crisis as big as VW’s, it’s crucial to clutch up at a time when consumers are rapidly losing trust in their previous image, a brand that cared to take environmental accountability. Multiple things they could have done: Never commit greenwashing in the first place, owe up to the mistake fast, take action immediately, fire all the higher-ups who approved it, provide transparency, show tangible results while taking action, carbon offsetting, show remorse, more accountability, etc. None of these happened.
So the next time you’re stumped on how to prove your crisis management plans to a DECA judge, have confidence knowing that at least it was better than what VW came up with.
Reference: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772