VW Executive Had a Pivotal Role As Car Maker Struggled with Emissions by DANNY HAKIM and JACK EWINGDEC
The New York Times 12/21/15 Page | 1 VW Executive Had a Pivotal Role as Car Maker Struggled With Emissions By DANNY HAKIM and JACK EWINGDEC. 21, 2015 Photo Wolfgang Hatz at the 2013 Geneva Car Show. Mr. Hatz, head of transmission and engine development at the Volkswagen Group, was suspended in September. CreditDenis Balibouse/Reuters LONDON — A few months after taking over engine development at Volkswagen in 2007, Wolfgang Hatz faced a potential challenge that he considered insurmountable. It was the State of California. Regulators there were seeking to limit global warming gases released by automobiles, a step never directly taken before in the United States. “We can do quite a bit and we will do a bit, but ‘impossible’ we cannot do,” Mr. Hatz said during a trip to San Francisco that year, where he http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/22/business/international/vw‐executive‐had‐a‐pivotal‐role‐as‐car‐ maker‐struggled‐with‐emissions.html?_r=0 The New York Times 12/21/15 Page | 2 took part in a technology demonstration hosted byVolkswagen. “From my point of view, the C.A.R.B. is not realistic,” he said of the California Air Resources Board, in remarks filmed by an auto website during the event. Of the proposed regulation, he said, “I see it as nearly impossible for us.” In September of this year, Volkswagen, then the world’s largest automaker, admitted to installing software designed to cheat on emissions tests, setting off one of the largest corporate scandals in the industry’s history. The role of Mr.
[Show full text]