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[vehicle approaching]
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[indistinct chatter on radio]
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[Alex Gibney] I thought I had found the perfect car.
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The VW Diesel Jetta Wagon.The ad sucked me in.
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[announcer 1] Volkswagen has morediesel cars on the road in the US
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than every other brand combined.
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[announcer 2] Boasting a two-literTDI turbo-charged clean diesel engine,
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not only does it provideexcellent fuel economy,
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but you'll love the performance, too.
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[Gibney] It was the only carthat seemed to have it all.
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Drove like a sports car...
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Can the Green Car of the Year be fast?
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[Gibney] Wasn't too expensive,got great mileage,
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and unlike diesels of the past,it was clean.
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[man 1] Volkswagen Jetta TDI Clean Diesel.
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[man 2] TDI Clean Diesel.
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[woman 1] TDI Clean Diesel.
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[Gibney] I was beaming with prideas I drove around the suburbs
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or commuted to New York City.
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What I didn't know wasthat I was driving a killing machine.
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[man 3] What has VW been up to?
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[man 4] We may be looking atthe largest systematic corporate fraud
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in the history of the global corporation.
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[man 5] Volkswagen has admittedthat their clean diesel cars
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have been systematically, proactivelyengineered to deceive emissions testing.
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[man 6] It's called a defeat device.It's designed to defeat the test.
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[woman 2] The Volkswagen scandal is widening.
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[man 7] The news just keeps getting worse.
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[man 8] VW share price down 31%.
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[man 3] If you're a VW shareholderor employee today,
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the letters stand for Very Worried.
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[Sally Yates] Volkswagen turnedover half a million American drivers
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into unwitting accomplicesin an unprecedented assault
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on our country's environment.
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Our criminal investigation is active
and ongoing.
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[brakes screeching]
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[theme music playing]
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[Yates] We can't undo the damage
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that Volkswagen causedto our air quality.
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But what we can do is offset that damage
by reducing pollution from future sources.
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Now, with respect to the agreement,
more specifically,
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Volkswagen must offer to buy back
any car that's on the road.
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That's nearly 500,000 two-liter
diesel vehicles
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that are model years 2009 through 2015.
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As part of the buyback, Volkswagen...
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[Gibney] When I first heard about the scandal, I was furious.
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VW had lied to me.
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They had pitched mea vision of my dream car,
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but sold me my worst nightmare.
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A car that was polluting 50 times morethan advertised.
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[Zoe Chace] It's not enough for VW to just apologize.
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They gotta use their folly to actively make the world better.
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Even before that, Kirk suggests...
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[Gibney] Weirdly, I was listening to NPRwhen my own name came up
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in an interview with a PR expert,on how VW could make things right.
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[Kirk Souder] ...an investigative documentarian group,
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like a Frontline or an Alex Gibney,
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who can come inwith the charge of discovering
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what happens in a company
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that actually leadsto this type of gross infraction.
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[Chace] Kirk went ahead and made a promofor this imaginary documentary.
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[announcer] A new series from Alex Gibney, the director of
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The Smartest Guys in the Room,
Coming Clean: Inside Volkswagen.
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Fuck Volkswagen.
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[announcer] With unprecedentedand unlimited access from Volkswagen...
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[Gibney] There was no way VWwas gonna give me access
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to look at the scandal,but the promo did get me worked up.
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Angry as I was, it didn't beginto describe the fury my wife felt.
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She stopped driving the car entirely.
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Though she had pasted "namaste"on our bumper sticker,
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a yoga term for"bowing to the divine in others,"
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she had visions of marching in
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to the local VW dealershipwith a chainsaw.
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-[man] And the number.
-[Anne Gibney] Yes.
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[man] These two documents...
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-[Anne] Okay, so I sign right...
-[man] Seller signature.
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Yep. There we go.
We're going to give you back the car.
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I feel so badly because I love the car...
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[man] Yeah.
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[Anne] Um, but when you feelyou've been lied to,
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it's really hard to feel okayabout the company, in general.
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Sort of like, shame on you, Volkswagen.
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-Yeah.
-Right?
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[Gibney] Exactly.
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[Gibney] Okay, my wife is way too niceto think about killing the local dealers.
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But she wanted the car out of our lives.
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The question she was asking,and I was, too,
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was, "How could this have happened?
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How could a company have liedto its customers on such a massive scale?"
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I decided to look into the scandal.
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What I would discover was much darker
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and more vast than anything I had imagined.
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[in German] I am pleased
that at the skilled hands
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of a brilliant design engineer
and his staff,
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preliminary designs for a German
Volkswagen have been completed,
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and the first models will finally be
tested by the middle of the year.
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Then you will understand why I wasutterly determined to lay the groundwork
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for the invention of the German Volkswagenand its ultimate conclusion,
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and by that, dear gentlemen,I mean a successful conclusion!
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[Gibney in English] Okay, it's usuallya cheap shot to bring up Hitler,
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but when it came to VW,
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he's the man that jump-started the companyback in the 1930s.
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[Jack Ewing] In the 1930s,
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cars were still a rarity in Germany,or relatively rare.
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It wasn't something that most people had.
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And in the United States, a lot of people
think Henry Ford invented the car
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but he didn't, actually.
What he did invent was
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how to build cars cheaply
that everybody could afford.
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So in the United States,
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there was far more middle-class people
who had automobiles than in Germany.
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And that really bothered the Germans
and the Nazis, in particular,
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because they were supposed to be superior.
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So Hitler hooked upwith Ferdinand Porsche.
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Porsche already had some designsin his drawer.
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This idea of a volkswagen, a people's car,had been kicking around for quite a while.
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And then he started developing the carwith Nazi money.
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Porsche, himself, went to Ford
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and looked around on several occasions.
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He hired Germans
who were working at Ford, émigrés.
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He brought them back to Germany
to help build the Volkswagen factory.
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And it was very consciouslymodeled on Ford,
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but it was supposed to be even bigger.
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They wanted it to bethe biggest factory in the world,
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which it eventually became.
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[reporter] There was a celebration in Germany,
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to mark the one millionth people's carsince the war.
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Over 150,000 people were presentto take part in the jollification.
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This included a...
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[Ewing] The city of Wolfsburg,
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it just doesn't get any more "company town" than that.
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There was nothing thereuntil they built the Volkswagen factory.
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Everything that you see in Wolfsburg today
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has really grown uparound that original factory.
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[Walter Groth] Okay, so, here,that's the main street in Wolfsburg.
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[Gibney] So there was nothing here?
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[Groth] Wolfsburg, as a city, didn't exist.
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[Gibney] It's a massive factory.
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[Groth] It's a massive factory.
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Nowadays, they are still employing60,000 people.
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[Gibney] Really?
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[Groth] And the chimneys you see over there,
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-that's actually the paint shop.
-[Gibney] Uh-huh.
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So, this is all employee housing in here?
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Yeah. Basically everyone works, uh,
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either directly or at least indirectly
for Volkswagen here.
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How does it rank in terms of
the largest factories in the world?
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-It's the largest one.
-It is.
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There's no other factory, uh...
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Right now, they are producing by day,
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-round about between 3,000 to 3,500 cars.
-Wow.
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[Gibney] VW declinedto give us a tour of Wolfsburg.
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So, I sought out the help of Walter Groth,
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a consultant on corporate culture,
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who'd worked for 20 yearsas an executive for Volkswagen.
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You'd been at Volkswagen for a long time.
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Twenty-four years.
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[Gibney] When the news broke
about the cheating scandal,
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what was your reaction?
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My reaction, uh...
I was angry, actually. I was angry.
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[stammering] I took that
very personal because, uh,
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I was thinking about all the people
working for the brand
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and really doing the hard work.
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And when you imagine
that this is a company
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with more than 600,000 people
working for Volkswagen worldwide,
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and more than a hundred factories,
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and you have to run this operation...
And all these people,
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when you look at the production lines,at manufacturing, what they do...
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When you look at the peopledeveloping a car,
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starting with the designers, for example,
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they all want to come upwith the best product possible.
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[Gibney] For VW, the road to global dominance
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had always led through America.
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In the '60s, sales hit new highs,
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when VW flew the freak flag for the counterculture.
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The Bug was a real people's car,mechanically simple and down-to-earth.
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You could be high on mescaline
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and still shift gearsor repair the engine.
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And the Bus was a crash pad on wheels.
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[Ewing] It was an amazing case of rebranding
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because this car was basicallydesigned for Hitler. [chuckles]
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Then after the war, it becomes
the symbol of the counterculture.
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[all laughing]
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[Gibney] But VW didn't keep upwith the times.
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As the counterculturegave way to the Reagan era,
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VW didn't innovate and its sales droppedas fast as the quality of its cars.
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[Groth] During all these years,sales went down, losses were mounting.
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Volkswagen was close to being insolvent.
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I was asked to join the newly-formed, uh,North American region
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because we needed to do a turnaround of the Volkswagen of America.
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In 1993, Volkswagen sold roughly38,000 cars a year in the United States.
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That's a market with 16-17 million cars.
So 38,000 is, uh, ridiculous. [chuckles]
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And, uh, you have to remember the times
when Volkswagen in the United States,
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with the Beetle,
sold almost half a million cars.
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[Gibney] The savior for VW was Ferdinand Piëch.
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The grandson of Ferdinand Porsche,
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Piëch was professionallyand personally productive.
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He sired 12 childrenwith four different women.
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He also infused VW with a new DNA.
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[in German] Whenever there is war,
fewer remain in the end.
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There are always winners and losers.
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And I intend...
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along with our VW partners
around the world...
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to emerge victorious.
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Yeah, a little faster is more fun.
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[Bertel Schmitt in English]
Piëch, he was the head of Audi before.
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He's a brilliant man.
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[stammers] It's brilliant,
but it's dangerous, okay? Kind of.
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I mean, Piëch was a tough guyand he knew what he was doing.
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[in German] I don't feel
I can't communicate with others.
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But there are individuals with whom
I don't want to communicate.
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And they complain
about my lack of communication.
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However, that's not unintentional.
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[Schmitt in English] When Piëch started,Volkswagen was down and out.
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They were just about bankrupt
and their quality sucked.
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It was a disaster.
Their value at the time was a disaster.
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The average, uh, workshop visitof an average car
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was three to four times in the first year.
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He had to turn the company around.And it's tough.
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[Groth] Dr. Piëch came just in timeto make that happen.
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Before him,Volkswagen was rather thinking small,
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and with Piëch,the big thinking really started.
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Piëch, uh, he's the typical inventor.
He has the big product ideas.
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He comes up with stuff that's just, uh...
Wow.
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Where did he get that from?
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[Schmitt] He has this idea of diesel.
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[stammers] At the time,diesels were something for tractors.
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Maybe for, uh, big Mercedes.
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And he said, "It's going to be diesel."
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He made the diesel smaller, invented TDI.
People, they loved it.
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[Gibney] The new TDI. It arrivedwith a hip new ad campaign.
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A diesel that was fun to drive,powerful and clean.
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[Groth] Volkswagen had huge successwith TDI engines.
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In Europe,people started to love the diesel.
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But there was always the problem
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that what comes out from the exhaust,
um... Not really healthy.
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[Gibney] The basics of dieseland gas engines are the same.
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00:15:20,753 --> 00:15:25,174
A series of explosions move the pistons,which turn the drive shaft.
238
00:15:28,260 --> 00:15:30,471
Diesel fuel is much more efficientthan gas
239
00:15:30,554 --> 00:15:33,307
and produces much less carbon dioxide.
240
00:15:33,390 --> 00:15:36,435
But diesel fuel exhaustdisgorges much nastier stuff.
241
00:15:37,144 --> 00:15:40,397
Particulate matter and nitrogen oxide,called NOx,
242
00:15:40,481 --> 00:15:43,692
that causes air pollutionand damages human lungs.
243
00:15:45,653 --> 00:15:47,905
This is personal for me.
244
00:15:47,988 --> 00:15:49,114
When my family was living
245
00:15:49,198 --> 00:15:51,867
in the NOx-filled smogof Southern California,
246
00:15:51,951 --> 00:15:54,578
my daughter developedexercise-induced asthma.
247
00:15:55,329 --> 00:15:57,373
When she was playing soccerin high school,
248
00:15:57,456 --> 00:16:00,084
she collapsed in front of mefrom lack of oxygen.
249
00:16:02,002 --> 00:16:04,046
[Gibney] NOx is not good.
250
00:16:04,129 --> 00:16:07,716
[stutters] No. NOx, nitrogen oxide,
is very, uh, nasty stuff.
251
00:16:08,884 --> 00:16:12,262
Elements of nitrogen oxides mix with ozone,
252
00:16:12,346 --> 00:16:15,891
and then chemically changes intowhat we call smog.
253
00:16:16,976 --> 00:16:21,397
It's a factor in acid rain.It's damaging for plant life.
254
00:16:21,480 --> 00:16:27,069
It causes asthma in children,causes cardiac problems, cancer.
255
00:16:27,152 --> 00:16:29,029
People will die prematurely.
256
00:16:30,906 --> 00:16:32,241
[motor whirring]
257
00:16:35,703 --> 00:16:38,789
[Gibney] To keep the efficiency of diesel,but to cut down on NOx,
258
00:16:38,872 --> 00:16:42,126
manufacturers like VWtried to create NOx traps
259
00:16:42,209 --> 00:16:45,421
that caught and burned the stuffbefore it left the tailpipe.
260
00:16:45,504 --> 00:16:47,673
But the special parts neededwere expensive,
261
00:16:47,756 --> 00:16:50,551
and had to be replacedevery few thousand miles.
262
00:16:50,634 --> 00:16:52,136
Yet, they were the only way to meet
263
00:16:52,219 --> 00:16:54,763
the NOx pollution standards set in the US,
264
00:16:54,847 --> 00:16:56,849
which were much more strictthan in Europe.
265
00:17:00,728 --> 00:17:02,646
[George W. Bush]
Today, I'm directing the EPA
266
00:17:02,730 --> 00:17:06,108
and the Department of Transportation,
Energy and Agriculture
267
00:17:06,191 --> 00:17:09,486
to take the first steps
towards regulations
268
00:17:09,570 --> 00:17:13,907
that would cut gasoline consumption
and greenhouse gas emissions
269
00:17:13,991 --> 00:17:15,034
for motor vehicles.
270
00:17:15,826 --> 00:17:18,370
We have set in motion a national policy
271
00:17:18,454 --> 00:17:25,044
aimed at both increasing gas mileage
and decreasing greenhouse gas pollution
272
00:17:25,127 --> 00:17:29,214
for all new trucks and cars
sold in the United States of America.
273
00:17:31,759 --> 00:17:34,053
[Gibney] Solving that problem in the US was critical
274
00:17:34,136 --> 00:17:37,306
for the strategy of the man who wouldeventually be tapped to follow Piëch
275
00:17:37,389 --> 00:17:40,225
as the head of VW, Martin Winterkorn.
276
00:17:40,309 --> 00:17:41,852
[Martin Winterkorn in German]
Dr. Piëch and I
277
00:17:41,935 --> 00:17:45,314
have been working togetherfor almost 30 years.
278
00:17:45,397 --> 00:17:50,069
And as you know, Dr. Piëch has always
regarded innovation as the top priority.
279
00:17:50,152 --> 00:17:56,033
So, we agreed that he would focus
on innovation and I would safeguard it.
280
00:17:58,744 --> 00:18:04,249
[in English] Winterkorn came and they did
this strategy called Strategy 2018.
281
00:18:04,333 --> 00:18:06,668
[in German] We wanted to have
the most satisfied customers.
282
00:18:06,752 --> 00:18:09,171
We wanted to have
the most satisfied employees.
283
00:18:09,254 --> 00:18:13,050
We wanted to achieve good results
in order to invest in the future.
284
00:18:13,133 --> 00:18:14,802
And we wanted to make the best cars.
285
00:18:14,885 --> 00:18:19,348
The upshot of which will be
that by 2018 we are going to be
286
00:18:19,431 --> 00:18:21,767
the preeminent car manufacturer
in the world.
287
00:18:23,018 --> 00:18:25,813
[Schmitt] Volkswagen never was great in America.
288
00:18:25,896 --> 00:18:28,232
The Volkswagen Bug was kind of a fluke.
289
00:18:28,315 --> 00:18:33,529
But America's a very important market.At the time, it was the world's largest.
290
00:18:33,612 --> 00:18:36,949
So, those Americans,they have to buy our diesel cars.
291
00:18:37,616 --> 00:18:40,202
That's what he wanted
for the United States, diesel,
292
00:18:40,285 --> 00:18:43,080
which is incredibly hard to do
in the United States.
293
00:18:43,163 --> 00:18:44,873
Everyone knew this.
294
00:18:45,833 --> 00:18:48,460
[stutters] And that's how it all started.
295
00:18:49,878 --> 00:18:53,549
The pressure on everybody
296
00:18:53,632 --> 00:18:57,136
to increase sales became unbearable.
297
00:18:58,512 --> 00:19:01,598
[Groth] Under pressure and when people feel fear,
298
00:19:01,682 --> 00:19:05,769
they might do thingsyou don't want them actually to do.
299
00:19:15,195 --> 00:19:17,072
[Gibney] Determined to conquer the American market,
300
00:19:17,156 --> 00:19:21,285
VW built a new green factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
301
00:19:21,368 --> 00:19:24,204
To comply withAmerican pollution standards,
302
00:19:24,288 --> 00:19:29,293
VW retooled its product line and introduced a new clean diesel, TDI.
303
00:19:31,211 --> 00:19:33,964
Its pitch to Americans was captivating.
304
00:19:34,047 --> 00:19:38,468
Cars that were low-cost, low-pollution,got good mileage and were fun to drive.
305
00:19:38,552 --> 00:19:39,720
Perfect.
306
00:19:39,803 --> 00:19:42,681
With its new green profile,VW's CEO boasted
307
00:19:42,764 --> 00:19:45,767
about its new-found commitmentto social responsibility.
308
00:19:46,393 --> 00:19:50,272
And Chattanooga stands
for the Volkswagen way of life.
309
00:19:50,355 --> 00:19:54,026
Sustainable, reliable and successful.
310
00:19:55,903 --> 00:20:00,532
Now, more than ever,
Volkswagen has everything it takes
311
00:20:00,616 --> 00:20:04,369
to win the hearts and minds
of American customers.
312
00:20:08,457 --> 00:20:11,084
[Gibney] I was one those peoplewho stood up and cheered.
313
00:20:11,168 --> 00:20:15,547
I was proud to own a VW.Auto experts were cheering too.
314
00:20:16,715 --> 00:20:20,344
Somehow, VW seemed to have solved a problem no one else could:
315
00:20:21,261 --> 00:20:25,224
how to clean up dirty diesel enginesin small, low-priced cars.
316
00:20:26,350 --> 00:20:29,853
I was completely surprised
when I suddenly saw the clean diesel thing
317
00:20:29,937 --> 00:20:31,146
in the United States.
318
00:20:31,230 --> 00:20:33,815
[stutters] And first thought was,
319
00:20:33,899 --> 00:20:38,111
"Great. That's great.
They solved the problem.
320
00:20:38,195 --> 00:20:40,572
Wow. I'm really deeply impressed."
321
00:20:40,656 --> 00:20:43,909
Then I looked at the price of the cars
322
00:20:43,992 --> 00:20:48,997
and, hmm, well, it's actually
right in the market.
323
00:20:50,791 --> 00:20:52,918
But I was asking myself, "How did they do it?"
324
00:20:53,001 --> 00:20:56,463
And I'm not an engine developer,I'm not an engineer, so...
325
00:20:56,546 --> 00:21:00,968
There might be a way nobody elsehas ever seen. Uh, great, they did it.
326
00:21:13,438 --> 00:21:15,524
[Gibney] VW's solution to the diesel problem
327
00:21:15,607 --> 00:21:18,860
caught the attention of a group focused on clean transportation.
328
00:21:19,987 --> 00:21:23,282
They studied VW dieselsnot to see if they were bad,
329
00:21:23,657 --> 00:21:25,492
but why they were so good.
330
00:21:25,575 --> 00:21:29,454
And whether the US cars could serve as a model for other companies.
331
00:21:29,538 --> 00:21:33,083
The man in charge of the group was an American named John German.
332
00:21:33,959 --> 00:21:37,796
[John German] I describe myselfas a pragmatic environmentalist.
333
00:21:37,879 --> 00:21:41,550
I spent about a decade eachwith Chrysler, then EPA, then Honda
334
00:21:41,633 --> 00:21:43,552
before I wound up at this non-profit,
335
00:21:43,969 --> 00:21:46,555
International Councilon Clean Transportation.
336
00:21:47,389 --> 00:21:49,099
The goal's always the environment.
337
00:21:49,182 --> 00:21:53,895
We focus on working
with regulators worldwide,
338
00:21:53,979 --> 00:21:56,398
not with legislatures.
339
00:21:56,481 --> 00:21:59,276
So we're trying to help
the regulators do their job better.
340
00:22:01,236 --> 00:22:04,072
The whole VW scandal started in Europe.
341
00:22:04,781 --> 00:22:09,077
In 2011-2012, there's a reportfrom an organization called JRC.
342
00:22:09,161 --> 00:22:14,458
It actually showed some anecdotal evidenceof high diesel emissions in Europe.
343
00:22:16,084 --> 00:22:19,129
But the report was basically ignored.
344
00:22:20,630 --> 00:22:24,676
We had this brainstormthat there was a missing piece of data,
345
00:22:25,343 --> 00:22:27,179
which is what's happening in the US.
346
00:22:34,227 --> 00:22:40,150
And so, in 2013, we decidedto test some diesels in the US.
347
00:22:41,693 --> 00:22:45,030
Primarily becausewe expected them to be clean.
348
00:22:45,697 --> 00:22:48,283
And then we would take that data
back to Europe and say,
349
00:22:48,366 --> 00:22:52,621
"Look, they're clean in the US.
How come you can't do it in Europe?"
350
00:23:00,253 --> 00:23:02,089
[engine starts]
351
00:23:03,215 --> 00:23:04,841
[Gibney] German needed to find someone
352
00:23:04,925 --> 00:23:07,636
to test what was coming out of the tailpipes of the cars,
353
00:23:07,719 --> 00:23:09,805
first in the lab and then on the road.
354
00:23:11,473 --> 00:23:14,935
The contract went to a groupat the University of West Virginia.
355
00:23:15,018 --> 00:23:16,269
Car geeks who wanted to see
356
00:23:16,353 --> 00:23:19,398
if clean diesel was for realin any kind of car.
357
00:23:30,534 --> 00:23:32,786
[Arvind Thiruvengadam] This isa portable emissions measurement system
358
00:23:32,869 --> 00:23:37,249
that we use to measure emissionsfrom vehicles on a real-time basis.
359
00:23:37,332 --> 00:23:40,377
It's a miniaturized versionof a laboratory-grade measurement system
360
00:23:40,460 --> 00:23:43,421
where it's kind of
in a shoebox-size, uh, equipment,
361
00:23:43,505 --> 00:23:44,923
where you can put it in the vehicle.
362
00:23:46,216 --> 00:23:50,053
This is used for a very specific purpose,
which is in-use measurement.
363
00:23:50,137 --> 00:23:53,056
So we tap into the tailpipe
and it measures two things.
364
00:23:53,140 --> 00:23:55,809
It measures the exhaust flow rate,
how much exhaust is coming out,
365
00:23:55,892 --> 00:23:58,353
and then what the constituents
of the exhaust are.
366
00:23:58,436 --> 00:24:02,566
So it's just a simple math,
flow rate times the concentration,
367
00:24:02,649 --> 00:24:05,819
which is going to give you
the, uh, the amount of, uh, pollutants
368
00:24:05,902 --> 00:24:08,113
that are coming out of the tailpipe.
So that's...
369
00:24:08,196 --> 00:24:10,615
[Gibney] Arvind Thiruvengadam was part of the team
370
00:24:10,699 --> 00:24:13,034
that did the diesel pollution testfor John German.
371
00:24:13,994 --> 00:24:17,831
They focused on European dieselsbeing sold in the US.
372
00:24:19,166 --> 00:24:21,334
[Thiruvengadam]
Whenever we do real-world testing,
373
00:24:21,418 --> 00:24:24,880
we do expect certain deviationsfrom the certification number.
374
00:24:24,963 --> 00:24:29,176
Conditions such as ambient temperature,
road grade, traffic and such,
375
00:24:29,259 --> 00:24:31,344
which you always cannot
expect the manufacturer
376
00:24:31,428 --> 00:24:33,471
to be at the lowest possible emissions.
377
00:24:34,139 --> 00:24:36,433
But there is an acceptable level of deviation.
378
00:24:36,766 --> 00:24:41,646
Usually, five to six times deviation is part of real-world activity.
379
00:24:42,230 --> 00:24:44,816
But the kind of deviationswe were observing
380
00:24:44,900 --> 00:24:49,821
from the VW passenger carswere significantly higher.
381
00:24:50,739 --> 00:24:53,742
[Gibney] During the road test,the VW TDI was sending
382
00:24:53,825 --> 00:24:58,705
up to 40 times more NOx into the airthan the VW lab test numbers.
383
00:24:59,748 --> 00:25:02,417
West Virginia University,
then they came to us.
384
00:25:02,500 --> 00:25:04,252
Once they said, you know,
385
00:25:04,336 --> 00:25:06,880
"We have these high emissions
and we can't explain it."
386
00:25:06,963 --> 00:25:10,008
And my first reaction was,
387
00:25:10,091 --> 00:25:12,469
"There must be something wrong
with the vehicle."
388
00:25:12,552 --> 00:25:15,722
Literally, a malfunction.
It wasn't operating properly.
389
00:25:17,015 --> 00:25:21,186
But we tested these vehicles
at the California emission laboratory
390
00:25:21,561 --> 00:25:23,146
and they passed the standards,
391
00:25:24,272 --> 00:25:26,608
which meant there was nothing wrong
with the vehicle.
392
00:25:27,275 --> 00:25:31,738
And at that stage, I was pretty darn sure
this was a defeat device.
393
00:25:34,741 --> 00:25:38,537
There's a long history of defeat devices
394
00:25:38,620 --> 00:25:42,916
and I worked at EPA during some of thesedefeat device investigations.
395
00:25:43,625 --> 00:25:47,003
The most recent major one was a 1998 case
396
00:25:47,087 --> 00:25:49,256
for heavy-duty engine manufacturers,
397
00:25:49,339 --> 00:25:52,842
in which almost every manufacturerof heavy-duty engines
398
00:25:52,926 --> 00:25:57,430
was calibrating them to increase emissionswhen they ran down the highway.
399
00:25:57,514 --> 00:26:02,561
That scandal cost them about $1 billionin total fines and remedies.
400
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,404
And now with the VW case,I knew I was sitting on a time bomb.
401
00:26:13,738 --> 00:26:16,533
But the words "defeat device"
never would cross my lips,
402
00:26:16,783 --> 00:26:21,079
'cause you just don't say that
about a multi-billion dollar company
403
00:26:21,162 --> 00:26:24,958
when you're a little, uh, NGO
with 30 employees.
404
00:26:25,041 --> 00:26:26,209
It was just too dangerous.
405
00:26:26,293 --> 00:26:29,921
[stammering] We'd have been potentially
sued out of existence
406
00:26:31,006 --> 00:26:35,802
if it had even been implied we were
accusing VW of having a defeat device.
407
00:26:37,679 --> 00:26:40,348
[Gibney] To avoid retaliation by VW,
408
00:26:40,432 --> 00:26:43,810
German first revealed his findings in 2014
409
00:26:44,102 --> 00:26:46,896
in San Diego,in a small academic conference.
410
00:26:46,980 --> 00:26:49,024
[people applauding]
411
00:26:49,107 --> 00:26:52,444
[Gibney] In the audiencewere a handful of VW executives.
412
00:26:52,527 --> 00:26:56,531
They must've realized for the first timethat investigators were on their trail.
413
00:26:57,282 --> 00:27:01,411
But German was careful not to call out VWwhen it came to publishing results.
414
00:27:02,829 --> 00:27:06,166
[German] The compromisethat we came up with
415
00:27:06,249 --> 00:27:09,169
is that we did post the report publicly on our website,
416
00:27:09,252 --> 00:27:13,965
but it refers to vehicles A, B and C.We did not identify them.
417
00:27:14,049 --> 00:27:17,302
Now, two days before
we put the report online,
418
00:27:17,385 --> 00:27:22,474
I sent a courtesy e-mail to VW, saying,
"This report's coming out. Here it is.
419
00:27:22,557 --> 00:27:25,018
By the way, vehicles A and B are yours."
420
00:27:33,109 --> 00:27:34,402
[woman] Raise your hand, sir.
421
00:27:35,654 --> 00:27:39,240
Do you swear or affirm that the testimony
you're going to give in these proceedings
422
00:27:39,324 --> 00:27:42,035
depicts the whole truth
under penalty of perjury?
423
00:27:42,118 --> 00:27:43,119
-I do.
-[woman] Thank you.
424
00:27:43,203 --> 00:27:44,662
[Michael Melkersen]
You are Stuart Johnson?
425
00:27:44,746 --> 00:27:45,914
I am.
426
00:27:45,997 --> 00:27:49,751
[Melkersen] Are you currently employed
at Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.?
427
00:27:49,834 --> 00:27:50,668
Yes, I am.
428
00:27:50,752 --> 00:27:53,046
-How long have you been employed there?
-Uh...
429
00:27:53,129 --> 00:27:56,341
All together,
I've worked at Volkswagen 33 years.
430
00:27:56,424 --> 00:28:01,471
In this e-mail, uh, it's true isn't it,
431
00:28:01,554 --> 00:28:06,768
that you're talking about
the West Virginia University study. True?
432
00:28:06,851 --> 00:28:07,769
Yes.
433
00:28:07,852 --> 00:28:09,771
Second-to-last sentence:
434
00:28:09,854 --> 00:28:14,734
"Some presenters indicated
they suspected cheating." You see that?
435
00:28:15,276 --> 00:28:16,152
Yes, I do.
436
00:28:16,236 --> 00:28:18,321
-That's something you wrote, right?
-That's correct.
437
00:28:18,405 --> 00:28:23,118
So you were aware,
at least as of April 8, 2014,
438
00:28:23,201 --> 00:28:25,245
that cheating
was one of the possible explanations
439
00:28:25,328 --> 00:28:27,455
-for what was going on. True?
-Yes.
440
00:28:28,415 --> 00:28:30,291
You state, quote,
441
00:28:31,042 --> 00:28:33,920
"We will have to be careful with this
going forward."
442
00:28:34,504 --> 00:28:36,715
-That's correct.
-Why did you say that?
443
00:28:37,507 --> 00:28:42,137
Because I didn't like hearing that,
out in a public forum,
444
00:28:42,220 --> 00:28:45,515
Volkswagen was being accused of cheating.
445
00:28:46,891 --> 00:28:52,147
Well, what was it specifically that
you all would need to be careful about?
446
00:28:52,230 --> 00:28:57,277
I didn't like the fact that there was a...
That that would, um, lead to
447
00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:00,613
some kind of suspicion
against our company.
448
00:29:00,697 --> 00:29:04,743
But how could you be careful
in order to alleviate suspicions?
449
00:29:04,826 --> 00:29:07,912
You have no control over suspicions
third parties have, right?
450
00:29:07,996 --> 00:29:08,830
Yes.
451
00:29:08,913 --> 00:29:11,833
So what was it specifically
that you needed to be careful about?
452
00:29:11,916 --> 00:29:14,544
My reason for writing that
453
00:29:14,627 --> 00:29:17,714
was that I wanted to
try to manage the message
454
00:29:18,882 --> 00:29:23,178
and part of managing that message
is engaging with the agencies.
455
00:29:25,263 --> 00:29:27,599
[Gibney] The agencies Johnsontried to manage
456
00:29:27,682 --> 00:29:30,560
were the EPA and California regulators.
457
00:29:31,644 --> 00:29:35,899
Following the San Diego presentation,California did its own tests.
458
00:29:35,982 --> 00:29:38,234
They confirmed the West Virginia results.
459
00:29:38,318 --> 00:29:40,862
Inside the lab,the pollution emitted by the cars
460
00:29:40,945 --> 00:29:42,322
was well within government limits.
461
00:29:43,323 --> 00:29:46,868
But on the road,NOx levels were dangerously high.
462
00:29:48,244 --> 00:29:50,663
That caught the attention of Alberto Ayala
463
00:29:50,747 --> 00:29:54,167
at the California Air Resources Board,known as CARB.
464
00:29:55,335 --> 00:30:00,632
What was different about this is,
how far off they were, the magnitude.
465
00:30:00,715 --> 00:30:03,718
We're not talking about
just a little bit above the standard.
466
00:30:03,802 --> 00:30:06,012
Forty times the limit was the average.
467
00:30:06,095 --> 00:30:10,183
If you look at some data points
that we have, um,
468
00:30:10,266 --> 00:30:13,228
[chuckles] in some cases,
it was 80 times the limit.
469
00:30:15,104 --> 00:30:17,273
And now you have two data points.
470
00:30:17,357 --> 00:30:21,861
We have two studies on our hands,saying this just doesn't make sense.
471
00:30:22,612 --> 00:30:25,532
At that point,that's when we went from research
472
00:30:25,615 --> 00:30:28,493
to, "Now we need to turn this intoa regulatory action."
473
00:30:29,077 --> 00:30:33,581
What followed was 60 months
of intense interaction with the company,
474
00:30:33,665 --> 00:30:36,960
back and forth, because it just escalated.
475
00:30:37,043 --> 00:30:40,171
We would do some testing,
generate questions,
476
00:30:40,255 --> 00:30:44,926
send them to the company.
They'd be expected to bring us answers.
477
00:30:45,009 --> 00:30:47,262
They would bring answers,
we would go back to the lab
478
00:30:47,345 --> 00:30:49,389
and try them
and then generate more questions.
479
00:30:51,432 --> 00:30:53,810
[Gibney] CARB was asking tough questions,
480
00:30:53,893 --> 00:30:56,771
and back in Wolfsburg,executives were terrified
481
00:30:56,855 --> 00:31:00,400
that honest answerswould reveal a long trail of deceit.
482
00:31:01,401 --> 00:31:04,696
CEO Martin Winterkornreceived an urgent e-mail
483
00:31:04,779 --> 00:31:07,824
from VW's head of quality management,Frank Tuch.
484
00:31:08,700 --> 00:31:12,579
"A thorough explanationof the dramatic increase in NOx emissions
485
00:31:12,662 --> 00:31:15,123
cannot be given to the authorities.
486
00:31:15,206 --> 00:31:18,167
It can be assumed that the authoritieswill then investigate
487
00:31:18,251 --> 00:31:22,338
whether Volkswagen implementeda so-called defeat device."
488
00:31:24,382 --> 00:31:29,387
Rather than come clean, VW thought itsonly alternative was to stall for time.
489
00:31:29,470 --> 00:31:31,931
[audience applauding]
490
00:31:32,015 --> 00:31:33,850
[Winterkorn in German]
Technological leadership
491
00:31:33,933 --> 00:31:37,729
is not just defined anymore
by horsepower and torque.
492
00:31:38,938 --> 00:31:42,734
The joy of economical and emissions-free
driving, ladies and gentlemen,
493
00:31:43,318 --> 00:31:47,447
will be the currency in coming years.
494
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:54,329
The company was,
uh, unfortunately, uh, dismissive.
495
00:31:54,412 --> 00:31:58,708
It's like, oh, you know, "Maybe
your instruments are not well calibrated,"
496
00:31:58,791 --> 00:32:03,296
or, you know, "Oh, you have academics,
graduate students running around,
497
00:32:03,379 --> 00:32:07,216
maybe they did it wrong
and, uh, you guys gotta go check in
498
00:32:07,300 --> 00:32:09,344
because you gotta use experts
to make sure that..."
499
00:32:09,427 --> 00:32:11,137
And we would do all of that, right?
500
00:32:11,220 --> 00:32:14,974
'Cause, again, all along, we're thinking,
"This is not a defeat device.
501
00:32:15,058 --> 00:32:17,268
This is just a technical problem."
502
00:32:18,144 --> 00:32:22,690
[Melkersen] It's true, isn't it,
that these various reasons were given
503
00:32:22,774 --> 00:32:27,070
in attempt to mislead the agency
into believing
504
00:32:27,153 --> 00:32:30,907
there were technical explanations
for the high NOx level
505
00:32:30,990 --> 00:32:34,827
as opposed to an explanation
that involved cheating? True?
506
00:32:35,578 --> 00:32:38,498
In retrospect, yes, that's true.
507
00:32:38,581 --> 00:32:42,585
Mr. Johnson, I've handed you
what's been marked as Exhibit 25...
508
00:32:42,669 --> 00:32:45,880
[Ayala] The two company representativesthat we interacted with the most
509
00:32:45,964 --> 00:32:52,053
were Stuart Johnson and Oliver Schmidt,who at the time was actually based here.
510
00:32:52,136 --> 00:32:56,182
So he represented the companywhen it came to certification issues.
511
00:32:56,265 --> 00:32:57,433
[Oliver Schmidt] Let's first have a look
512
00:32:57,517 --> 00:32:59,811
at Volkswagen's historyof diesel in the US.
513
00:32:59,894 --> 00:33:04,232
With this technology, we won, in 2009,the Green Car of the Year.
514
00:33:04,315 --> 00:33:07,568
Unfortunately, we got new emission
regulations in the US.
515
00:33:07,652 --> 00:33:13,282
So, we had to comply with, um, with Bin 5
or ULEV standard all over the US...
516
00:33:13,366 --> 00:33:16,369
[Melkersen] In May of 2014,was Oliver Schmidt your boss?
517
00:33:16,452 --> 00:33:17,787
Yes, he was.
518
00:33:17,870 --> 00:33:20,164
When the West Virginia University
report came out,
519
00:33:20,248 --> 00:33:21,749
did Oliver Schmidt express to you
520
00:33:21,833 --> 00:33:24,877
that one of the possibilities
for the explanation of this report
521
00:33:24,961 --> 00:33:27,171
-is that we were cheating?
-No.
522
00:33:27,255 --> 00:33:30,091
We were able to increase
fuel economy by a lot,
523
00:33:30,174 --> 00:33:33,553
and we reduced the NOx raw emission
of the engine by 40%
524
00:33:33,636 --> 00:33:36,848
in order to comply with
future emission regulations...
525
00:33:36,931 --> 00:33:39,142
[Gibney] Oliver Schmidt was not sharingwhat he knew
526
00:33:39,225 --> 00:33:42,228
with many of the US team,including Stuart Johnson.
527
00:33:43,354 --> 00:33:45,898
But the cheating and how to handle itwas an open secret
528
00:33:45,982 --> 00:33:47,984
among many executives in Germany.
529
00:33:48,818 --> 00:33:52,530
Schmidt wrote an e-mail posinga fundamental question about strategy.
530
00:33:52,613 --> 00:33:55,867
"It should first be decidedwhether we are honest.
531
00:33:55,950 --> 00:33:59,412
If we are not honest,everything stays as it is."
532
00:33:59,495 --> 00:34:03,082
Translation: Keep cheatingand conceal the defeat device
533
00:34:03,166 --> 00:34:05,334
in a storm of obfuscating e-mails,
534
00:34:05,418 --> 00:34:09,464
misleading technical reportsand endless diversionary meetings.
535
00:34:09,547 --> 00:34:11,507
[Ayala] For every meetingthat Oliver and I had,
536
00:34:11,591 --> 00:34:15,094
our technical teams probably
had another five, ten meetings.
537
00:34:15,178 --> 00:34:19,307
There was so much going on
and it just got really convoluted.
538
00:34:20,433 --> 00:34:24,103
That was a challenge here. It didn'tfeel like we were making progress.
539
00:34:26,272 --> 00:34:31,152
We were negotiating, holding meetings
with them, talking about...
540
00:34:31,235 --> 00:34:36,074
[Gibney] As CARB turned up the heat on VW,Stuart Johnson was suddenly promoted
541
00:34:36,157 --> 00:34:39,035
and Oliver Schmidt was quicklytransferred back to Germany.
542
00:34:40,203 --> 00:34:42,830
[Melkersen] Do you believe
that Oliver Schmidt
543
00:34:42,914 --> 00:34:44,749
was transferred back to Germany
544
00:34:44,832 --> 00:34:48,961
and you moved into that position
to allow plausible deniability?
545
00:34:49,045 --> 00:34:52,090
[clicks tongue] No, I don't believe that.
546
00:35:00,515 --> 00:35:02,725
Did you have a reputation at your company
for honesty?
547
00:35:02,809 --> 00:35:03,810
Yes.
548
00:35:03,893 --> 00:35:05,520
-Being forthright?
-Yes.
549
00:35:05,603 --> 00:35:08,815
Did Oliver Schmidt share that reputation
that you had?
550
00:35:11,859 --> 00:35:12,693
No.
551
00:35:19,992 --> 00:35:21,119
[Gibney] Back in Wolfsburg,
552
00:35:21,202 --> 00:35:24,539
Schmidt and the other German execs came up with a plan.
553
00:35:24,622 --> 00:35:28,709
VW would announce a recalland pledge to fix the problem.
554
00:35:28,793 --> 00:35:32,004
For the moment,CARB and the EPA seemed satisfied
555
00:35:32,088 --> 00:35:35,007
that VW was finally readyto do the right thing.
556
00:35:36,008 --> 00:35:38,469
They told us,
"Oh, while we do this recall,
557
00:35:38,553 --> 00:35:41,055
we will put a fix to this issue
on the NOx."
558
00:35:41,139 --> 00:35:44,308
Right? Uh, in the hope
that I would come back
559
00:35:44,392 --> 00:35:45,810
and tell my team, "We're done."
560
00:35:45,893 --> 00:35:49,188
[Gibney] They'd convince you
with their data
561
00:35:49,272 --> 00:35:51,274
so you wouldn't bother
to keep testing the car.
562
00:35:51,357 --> 00:35:54,318
Correct, and of course that's not how
we do business here, right?
563
00:35:55,611 --> 00:35:58,656
They did the recalland we got some test vehicles.
564
00:35:58,739 --> 00:36:00,032
We went back into the lab,
565
00:36:00,116 --> 00:36:03,661
and it wasn't giving us in-use emissionsthat match the in-certification test.
566
00:36:04,912 --> 00:36:06,789
[Melkersen] Would it be a fair statement that at the time that
567
00:36:06,873 --> 00:36:09,125
Volkswagen Group of America
was telling CARB
568
00:36:09,208 --> 00:36:12,545
that it would update its software
569
00:36:12,628 --> 00:36:17,800
to more closely attempt compliance
with regulatory limits,
570
00:36:17,884 --> 00:36:22,513
in fact, it was updating the software
to further its cheat?
571
00:36:24,140 --> 00:36:26,058
[lawyer] Objection to the form
of the question.
572
00:36:26,142 --> 00:36:27,518
[Melkersen] True?
573
00:36:27,602 --> 00:36:31,272
I would say, yes, that's true,
knowing what I know today.
574
00:36:34,692 --> 00:36:37,778
[Gibney] VW did not fix the problem.Just the opposite.
575
00:36:37,862 --> 00:36:42,742
The company fixed the defeat deviceto make it even better at cheating.
576
00:36:43,993 --> 00:36:45,369
Through VW's own test,
577
00:36:45,453 --> 00:36:48,289
engineers discoveredthat sometimes the pollution controls
578
00:36:48,372 --> 00:36:51,209
would actually workas advertised on the road.
579
00:36:51,709 --> 00:36:54,170
But that caused wear and tearon the exhaust system.
580
00:36:54,795 --> 00:36:58,466
So to protect the cars,VW engineers changed the software,
581
00:36:58,549 --> 00:37:01,052
so pollution controls were shut off
582
00:37:01,135 --> 00:37:03,304
as soon as the driver moved the steering wheel.
583
00:37:08,100 --> 00:37:10,728
[German] You strap a vehicleonto a dynamometer
584
00:37:10,811 --> 00:37:12,688
and the front wheels never turn.
585
00:37:12,772 --> 00:37:15,900
So they looked for movementof the front steering wheel
586
00:37:15,983 --> 00:37:18,903
and deactivated emission controls if they found that movement.
587
00:37:19,570 --> 00:37:22,198
How could they possibly believe
588
00:37:22,281 --> 00:37:27,495
that they could go out and just change
from one egregious strategy
589
00:37:27,578 --> 00:37:30,122
to a different egregious strategy
and get away with it?
590
00:37:30,206 --> 00:37:31,832
I still don't understand that.
591
00:37:31,916 --> 00:37:35,753
That was without doubt
the stupidest thing VW did.
592
00:37:36,921 --> 00:37:40,758
The time that we wasted
giving them the benefit of the doubt,
593
00:37:40,841 --> 00:37:46,514
that's really what-- what, um,
what got me, that I was, um...
594
00:37:48,724 --> 00:37:54,939
I was naïve thinking that the company
was operating, uh, in good faith
595
00:37:55,022 --> 00:37:58,484
and trying to find a solution,
because it was all wasted.
596
00:37:58,567 --> 00:38:01,946
They could've come clean from day one
and saved us a lot of trouble.
597
00:38:02,029 --> 00:38:04,532
Very systematically, we were checking...
598
00:38:04,615 --> 00:38:06,742
We thought it's this.
It's not, it's not.
599
00:38:06,826 --> 00:38:09,120
You go down and eliminate
all other options.
600
00:38:09,620 --> 00:38:12,456
The only thing remaining is
it's gotta be a defeat device.
601
00:38:13,499 --> 00:38:20,131
I always thought that there was
a good explanation for what was happening
602
00:38:20,214 --> 00:38:21,674
and that it wasn't cheating.
603
00:38:22,550 --> 00:38:25,553
And the first time that I really...
604
00:38:27,346 --> 00:38:32,476
had the feeling that something was wrong
and cheating was very possibly happening
605
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:38,357
was when we met with
the Air Resources Board on July 8th, 2015.
606
00:38:39,108 --> 00:38:43,195
In my opinion, I would characterize it
as, uh, a pretty rough meeting.
607
00:38:43,946 --> 00:38:46,741
Lots of strong talk from the agencies.
608
00:38:47,700 --> 00:38:51,287
They said,
"We think you're recognizing the FTP.
609
00:38:52,538 --> 00:38:55,791
We don't know how you're doing it,
but we're convinced you're doing it."
610
00:38:55,875 --> 00:38:58,252
[Melkersen] Who above you,
611
00:38:58,336 --> 00:39:01,672
as far as management's concerned,
did you discuss it with?
612
00:39:01,756 --> 00:39:02,798
[clicks tongue]
613
00:39:03,758 --> 00:39:09,263
Well, I've discussed it a lot
with the management in Germany.
614
00:39:09,347 --> 00:39:14,435
Uh, Oliver Schmidt almost called me
immediately after the meeting,
615
00:39:14,518 --> 00:39:16,687
within a day or so, saying,
616
00:39:16,771 --> 00:39:19,482
"What went on at the meeting?
How did it go?"
617
00:39:19,565 --> 00:39:22,693
I said, "It didn't go very well."
He said, "Yes, I heard that."
618
00:39:22,777 --> 00:39:23,861
I'm gonna stop you there.
619
00:39:23,944 --> 00:39:26,739
Did you ask anybody
whether or not you were cheating?
620
00:39:28,282 --> 00:39:30,451
-No, I didn't.
-Why not?
621
00:39:31,994 --> 00:39:38,876
To me, the people I was in contact with
were the people that were deceiving me.
622
00:39:43,422 --> 00:39:46,509
[Gibney] When it was clearVW's fog machine wasn't working,
623
00:39:46,592 --> 00:39:51,180
VW agreed to a series of meetingswith CARB in August 2015.
624
00:39:52,598 --> 00:39:54,725
[Johnson] Oliver Schmidt told me
625
00:39:55,476 --> 00:40:01,107
that he was authorized to come to the US,
626
00:40:02,066 --> 00:40:04,819
he was authorized
to meet with Alberto Ayala,
627
00:40:05,361 --> 00:40:08,114
and he was authorized
to make an admission.
628
00:40:10,574 --> 00:40:15,663
The reason VW finally came clean
is actually fairly simple.
629
00:40:16,580 --> 00:40:20,876
EPA told them that
if they didn't come clean,
630
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:25,464
they would not certify any 2016 vehicles,
including their gasoline vehicles.
631
00:40:25,548 --> 00:40:27,716
That means VW can't sell cars.
632
00:40:28,926 --> 00:40:30,553
No sales of new cars.
633
00:40:31,303 --> 00:40:36,058
There were comments made at the meeting
that this was a financial decision.
634
00:40:36,142 --> 00:40:38,436
[Melkersen]
There was an intentional premeditated
635
00:40:38,519 --> 00:40:40,271
cost-benefit analysis to cheat.
636
00:40:41,105 --> 00:40:43,649
That's what was stated in the meeting.
637
00:40:44,650 --> 00:40:49,155
So, it sounded like a pretty strong
confession to me at the time.
638
00:40:50,406 --> 00:40:54,702
Stuart did approach me
and we went aside and had a conversation,
639
00:40:54,785 --> 00:40:58,456
and that's when he admitted to me
that it was a defeat device.
640
00:40:58,539 --> 00:40:59,957
That was the first time.
641
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:01,709
We told Mr. Ayala
642
00:41:03,002 --> 00:41:08,215
the vehicle recognizes the dyno,
it recognizes the test cycle
643
00:41:09,008 --> 00:41:13,888
and that this was a software gimmick.
644
00:41:13,971 --> 00:41:16,724
That some software had been developed
645
00:41:16,807 --> 00:41:19,185
by somebody who thought
they were smarter than you.
646
00:41:20,811 --> 00:41:25,900
I was very upset.
I mean, I was probably very, um...
647
00:41:27,401 --> 00:41:28,444
not very polite,
648
00:41:28,986 --> 00:41:34,575
and I think that Stuart probably took
most of the brunt of it
649
00:41:34,658 --> 00:41:37,161
simply because he was the company
at the time.
650
00:41:37,244 --> 00:41:38,245
But I was very upset.
651
00:41:38,329 --> 00:41:40,998
[Melkersen] Read for me, if you would,
into the record,
652
00:41:41,081 --> 00:41:45,169
what the quotes were
that you're quoting Dr. Ayala saying
653
00:41:45,252 --> 00:41:47,922
to your conversation, if you would.
654
00:41:48,005 --> 00:41:50,716
So, his quotes are,
655
00:41:50,799 --> 00:41:54,678
"You played us. You tried to put
a pillow over our head.
656
00:41:54,762 --> 00:41:59,808
You wasted a lot of our time and money.
We will come after you hard on this.
657
00:41:59,892 --> 00:42:02,978
This has taken too much time
and raised expectations.
658
00:42:03,062 --> 00:42:06,857
Now it's just going to confirm
what NGOs have been saying all along.
659
00:42:07,691 --> 00:42:12,655
We will write a nasty press release.
I don't believe your company anymore.
660
00:42:12,738 --> 00:42:16,659
This is going to be a lot of money
and you better not fight it.
661
00:42:19,161 --> 00:42:21,956
And don't give me any shit
on the midterm review
662
00:42:22,039 --> 00:42:23,958
when I ask for more stringency."
663
00:42:27,253 --> 00:42:28,462
[Melkersen] Thank you.
664
00:42:29,421 --> 00:42:32,675
There was tremendous pressure
that the company was putting on itself
665
00:42:32,758 --> 00:42:36,303
to really get to that point where
they wanted to be number one,
666
00:42:36,387 --> 00:42:40,057
and they basically wanted to get there
at whatever cost, and...
667
00:42:41,475 --> 00:42:42,851
now, here we are.
668
00:42:45,062 --> 00:42:46,855
[man] Ladies and gentlemen,
669
00:42:46,939 --> 00:42:49,525
please welcome president and CEO
670
00:42:49,608 --> 00:42:52,861
of Volkswagen Group of America,Michael Horn.
671
00:42:52,945 --> 00:42:54,655
[audience applauding]
672
00:42:59,535 --> 00:43:01,412
So, let's be clear about this.
673
00:43:01,495 --> 00:43:07,710
Our company was dishonest with the EPA
and the California Air Resources Board,
674
00:43:07,793 --> 00:43:09,336
and with all of you.
675
00:43:09,420 --> 00:43:12,548
And in my German words,
we've totally screwed up.
676
00:43:12,631 --> 00:43:17,219
[in German] The irregularities found
in our diesel engines
677
00:43:17,303 --> 00:43:21,056
are the antithesis of everything
Volkswagen stands for.
678
00:43:21,140 --> 00:43:26,020
Even I, at this point,
don't have answers to all the questions.
679
00:43:26,103 --> 00:43:30,190
But we are working diligently
to find out exactly what happened.
680
00:43:30,274 --> 00:43:31,900
[Gibney] Is it conceivable
681
00:43:31,984 --> 00:43:37,656
that Winterkorn didn't know about
the cheating devices? Is that conceivable?
682
00:43:37,740 --> 00:43:41,118
If you believe in the tooth fairy,
then it's conceivable.
683
00:43:41,201 --> 00:43:44,455
[in German] To our employees,
I'd like to say,
684
00:43:44,913 --> 00:43:47,625
I know with how much dedication,
685
00:43:47,708 --> 00:43:52,004
honesty and integrity you pursue your work
day after day.
686
00:43:52,921 --> 00:43:58,594
I am well aware that much of it
has been thrown into question.
687
00:43:59,637 --> 00:44:03,557
But it would be wrong
to cast general suspicion
688
00:44:03,641 --> 00:44:07,561
on the hard and honest work
of 600,000 people
689
00:44:07,645 --> 00:44:09,355
because of the terrible mistake
made by the few.
690
00:44:09,438 --> 00:44:12,483
[in English] Dr. Winterkorn,
this happened under your watch.
691
00:44:12,566 --> 00:44:13,817
You own it.
692
00:44:14,693 --> 00:44:19,156
Don't tell me that some engineers
at some place did something wrong.
693
00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:20,366
Don't tell me that.
694
00:44:20,449 --> 00:44:22,076
[in German] You have my word,
695
00:44:22,701 --> 00:44:27,790
we will do all of this with the greatest
possible openness and transparency.
696
00:44:28,540 --> 00:44:30,292
[Gibney] Winterkorn denied any knowledge
697
00:44:30,376 --> 00:44:32,670
of the defeat deviceor the cheating scandal,
698
00:44:32,753 --> 00:44:35,923
but he was forced to resign the day after giving the statement.
699
00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:41,720
The US Congress began to investigate,with one question in mind:
700
00:44:41,804 --> 00:44:44,139
how high did the deception go?
701
00:44:44,223 --> 00:44:47,768
[Joe Barton] Raise your right hand
and I'll swear you in.
702
00:44:47,851 --> 00:44:50,896
[Gibney] Michael Horn was the CEO of Volkswagen Group of America.
703
00:44:50,979 --> 00:44:52,523
[Barton] Do you swear
the testimony you're about to give...
704
00:44:52,606 --> 00:44:54,316
[Gibney] One of the company'sbest salesmen,
705
00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:57,194
he'd worked at VW for 25 years.
706
00:44:57,277 --> 00:45:00,781
I'm told that this was a decision made
in Germany at the corporate level.
707
00:45:00,864 --> 00:45:02,157
Is that correct?
708
00:45:03,033 --> 00:45:05,285
Two answers to this.
709
00:45:05,369 --> 00:45:08,080
Um, first of all,
the investigations are ongoing,
710
00:45:08,163 --> 00:45:10,124
but this was not a corporate decision.
711
00:45:10,207 --> 00:45:13,043
From my point of view,
to my best knowledge today,
712
00:45:13,127 --> 00:45:14,753
the corporation in no board meeting
713
00:45:14,837 --> 00:45:17,548
or no supervisory board meeting
has authorized this.
714
00:45:17,631 --> 00:45:21,009
[Gibney] But Michael Horn knew about the defeat device.
715
00:45:21,093 --> 00:45:23,762
A year and a half before his testimony to Congress,
716
00:45:23,846 --> 00:45:26,598
Horn had received an e-mail from Oliver Schmidt.
717
00:45:27,850 --> 00:45:32,020
Schmidt told Horn about the defeat deviceand the likely consequences.
718
00:45:32,813 --> 00:45:36,275
"Intentional conduct equals penalties."
719
00:45:37,151 --> 00:45:40,237
[Johnson] In a conversation I had with Michael Horn,
720
00:45:41,447 --> 00:45:48,412
he had mentioned that he had receiveda report from Oliver in May of 2014.
721
00:45:48,495 --> 00:45:50,706
[Melkersen] Did he tell you
what it was about?
722
00:45:50,789 --> 00:45:52,416
Not in detail. No.
723
00:45:52,499 --> 00:45:57,004
-Or did he tell you in summary?
-He just said that it, uh...
724
00:45:58,547 --> 00:46:04,928
raised the possibility of cheating
at that point in time.
725
00:46:05,012 --> 00:46:09,224
At that point of time, I had
no understanding what a defeat device was
726
00:46:09,308 --> 00:46:11,685
and I had no indication whatsoever
727
00:46:11,768 --> 00:46:14,354
that a defeat device
could have been in our cars.
728
00:46:14,438 --> 00:46:18,942
This was a couple of software engineers
who put this in for whatever reasons,
729
00:46:19,026 --> 00:46:20,527
and I would also like to find out...
730
00:46:20,611 --> 00:46:24,990
That story of a small group
of engineers at Volkswagen
731
00:46:25,073 --> 00:46:29,286
doing something on their own
is unbelievable, okay?
732
00:46:29,369 --> 00:46:32,039
It's unbelievable, okay?
733
00:46:32,122 --> 00:46:36,585
At Volkswagen, if you want a pen,
you need three signatures.
734
00:46:38,795 --> 00:46:40,464
[Gibney] New York state took up the fight
735
00:46:40,547 --> 00:46:43,800
and launched a civil suit,proclaiming fraud by VW.
736
00:46:43,884 --> 00:46:48,138
Today's suit and the nine-month
investigation that led to it
737
00:46:48,222 --> 00:46:51,767
are designed to hold Volkswagen
accountable for their actions
738
00:46:51,850 --> 00:46:55,187
and to make sure that no car company again
739
00:46:55,270 --> 00:46:58,482
ever considers
this type of widespread deception.
740
00:46:58,565 --> 00:47:00,609
The individuals
who purchase cars are victims.
741
00:47:00,692 --> 00:47:03,570
Those who suffer
from this extra pollution are victims.
742
00:47:03,654 --> 00:47:06,406
So is every other company
that followed the rules
743
00:47:06,490 --> 00:47:09,451
and was trying to produce a car
complying with the law
744
00:47:09,535 --> 00:47:10,827
to meet these emission standards.
745
00:47:10,911 --> 00:47:15,165
To have these folks cheating and
programming their cars to commit fraud,
746
00:47:15,249 --> 00:47:17,376
in a way, their competitors
are also victims.
747
00:47:17,459 --> 00:47:19,795
We're trying to establish
a level playing field,
748
00:47:19,878 --> 00:47:21,630
that everyone has to follow the rules,
749
00:47:21,713 --> 00:47:23,173
no one is above the law
750
00:47:23,257 --> 00:47:26,343
and no level of corporate cover-up
can excuse this.
751
00:47:26,426 --> 00:47:29,638
[Gibney] Did you come up with evidence
that indicated
752
00:47:29,721 --> 00:47:32,266
that Winterkorn knew what was going on?
753
00:47:32,349 --> 00:47:35,269
Yeah. Going back to, I think, 2006,
754
00:47:35,352 --> 00:47:37,479
it's clear that things at least
came to his attention.
755
00:47:39,648 --> 00:47:42,734
We've reviewed millions of pages of documents, thousands of internal e-mails.
756
00:47:43,944 --> 00:47:48,073
It is clear that there had been a very frantic effort to cover this up.
757
00:47:48,657 --> 00:47:50,617
They had phony recalls,
758
00:47:50,701 --> 00:47:55,122
they looked at other penalties against carmakers and said,
759
00:47:55,205 --> 00:47:57,457
"We can survive this sort of a penalty."
760
00:47:57,958 --> 00:48:01,128
There were signals sent, "We may be
putting a document holdout,"
761
00:48:01,211 --> 00:48:03,839
which sends a signal, maybe
you wanna destroy some documents.
762
00:48:03,922 --> 00:48:08,010
Hundreds of very high-level executives
and engineers knew about this.
763
00:48:08,093 --> 00:48:10,387
We didn't find one e-mail
from anyone saying,
764
00:48:10,470 --> 00:48:12,598
"We shouldn't do this,"
or, "This is against the law,"
765
00:48:12,681 --> 00:48:14,725
or trying to put the brakes
on this system.
766
00:48:14,808 --> 00:48:18,270
So this was a corporate culture
permeated by fraud.
767
00:48:18,353 --> 00:48:22,733
Now, all of these cars are
out of the legal compliance, clearly.
768
00:48:22,816 --> 00:48:25,694
[Johnson] I had a phone conversation with Michael Horn
769
00:48:25,777 --> 00:48:27,946
after I'd heard from Oliver Schmidt,
770
00:48:28,030 --> 00:48:30,741
that he's authorized to make an admission.
771
00:48:30,824 --> 00:48:35,203
Things were looking bad,
you know, dire outcome.
772
00:48:37,039 --> 00:48:38,498
So, um...
773
00:48:39,249 --> 00:48:40,584
Michael Horn called me.
774
00:48:40,667 --> 00:48:42,002
I told Mr. Horn,
775
00:48:43,086 --> 00:48:47,174
"It looks like we've been cheating
and we've been caught."
776
00:48:47,924 --> 00:48:52,471
[Melkersen] And did Mr. Horn then
immediately issue a stop-sale order,
777
00:48:52,554 --> 00:48:57,309
to stop selling these cars that Volkswagen
had been cheating to sell?
778
00:48:57,392 --> 00:48:58,644
Not that I'm aware of, no.
779
00:48:59,436 --> 00:49:02,648
Would it be fair to say that
Michael Horn's primary focus is
780
00:49:03,815 --> 00:49:05,651
increasing sales?
781
00:49:05,734 --> 00:49:07,486
[lawyer] Objection. Calls for speculation.
782
00:49:07,569 --> 00:49:10,364
[Melkersen] In respect to his position
at Volkswagen Group of America?
783
00:49:10,447 --> 00:49:11,782
[lawyer] Calls for speculation.
784
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:14,701
I would say yes.
785
00:49:19,539 --> 00:49:20,666
You know what's really great
786
00:49:20,749 --> 00:49:24,169
about the all-new 2012 Volkswagen Passat
TDI Clean Diesel?
787
00:49:24,252 --> 00:49:26,338
Not only does it provide
excellent fuel economy,
788
00:49:26,421 --> 00:49:28,423
but you'll love the performance, too.
789
00:49:28,507 --> 00:49:31,551
Delivers turbo-charged performance
and great mileage.
790
00:49:31,635 --> 00:49:35,347
[man] Passat TDI Clean Diesel with up to 814 highway miles per tank.
791
00:49:35,430 --> 00:49:36,723
Just one reason Volkswagen
792
00:49:36,807 --> 00:49:39,851
is the number-one selling diesel car brandin America.
793
00:49:39,935 --> 00:49:44,272
If you want a look into the psyche,
into the thinking of a company,
794
00:49:45,190 --> 00:49:47,192
you should look at
the advertising campaign.
795
00:49:47,943 --> 00:49:50,570
The old wives' tale is funny.
796
00:49:50,654 --> 00:49:52,531
How do you like my new car?
797
00:49:52,614 --> 00:49:53,573
Isn't diesel dirty?
798
00:49:53,657 --> 00:49:55,409
Oh, say it's beautiful, for Christ's sake.
799
00:49:55,492 --> 00:49:58,203
I think it's beautiful,
but aren't diesels dirty?
800
00:49:58,286 --> 00:49:59,121
Yeah, that's true.
801
00:50:00,539 --> 00:50:03,417
Oh, that used to be dirty. This is 2015.
802
00:50:03,500 --> 00:50:05,711
No, no, no. Listen to me, Terry.
803
00:50:05,794 --> 00:50:09,464
-Diesel in Latin means dirty.
-I'll prove it to ya.
804
00:50:10,215 --> 00:50:13,176
[woman] You're gonna ruin your scarf.
Oh, look what she's doing.
805
00:50:13,260 --> 00:50:14,928
See how clean it is?
806
00:50:15,011 --> 00:50:17,097
[woman] It's not dirty,
but you still have a dirty mind.
807
00:50:17,180 --> 00:50:22,978
The audience is like, "It's very funny.
That's the way it is." But it was a lie.
808
00:50:23,061 --> 00:50:24,688
Every time one of those ads ran,
809
00:50:24,771 --> 00:50:27,566
the executives of these companies knew
that they were telling a lie,
810
00:50:27,649 --> 00:50:31,695
and they'd sold, uh, ultimately about
11 million of these cars around the world.
811
00:50:31,778 --> 00:50:33,905
That's a lot of cars,
a lot of excess pollution.
812
00:50:34,948 --> 00:50:37,242
They seemed to have a culture in the company,
813
00:50:37,325 --> 00:50:39,327
a feeling as though they were above the law.
814
00:50:40,829 --> 00:50:43,039
[Gibney] Between stateand federal sanctions,
815
00:50:43,123 --> 00:50:47,127
VW was forced to pay over $25 billion in fines,
816
00:50:47,210 --> 00:50:51,465
and to buy back over 550,000 vehicles from angry owners.
817
00:50:51,548 --> 00:50:55,385
Through lawsuits and investigationsby government regulators,
818
00:50:55,469 --> 00:51:00,724
more details would be revealed aboutVW's vast cheating campaign in the US.
819
00:51:00,807 --> 00:51:02,184
And across the ocean,
820
00:51:02,267 --> 00:51:04,644
a journalist named Hans Koberstein uncovered
821
00:51:04,728 --> 00:51:07,773
a much more pervasive problem in Europe.
822
00:51:07,856 --> 00:51:11,651
Our main question was
is Volkswagen the only one?
823
00:51:11,735 --> 00:51:15,489
What about all the other diesel car
manufacturers in Germany?
824
00:51:15,572 --> 00:51:19,993
World leaders in diesel technology.
Do they use illegal defeat devices, too?
825
00:51:24,873 --> 00:51:27,000
My colleagues and I decided to do a test
826
00:51:27,083 --> 00:51:32,380
to measure the emissions on the roadof German cars.
827
00:51:32,464 --> 00:51:38,094
BMW, Mercedes and a Volkswagenwith a defeat device.
828
00:51:38,178 --> 00:51:41,056
[man in German] Do they poisonthe air more than allowed?
829
00:51:41,932 --> 00:51:45,477
When we tried to get
the portable emission measurement system
830
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:46,728
to do the testings,
831
00:51:47,646 --> 00:51:50,148
in this time
there were just four companies
832
00:51:50,232 --> 00:51:52,776
that offer this service in Germany.
833
00:51:52,859 --> 00:51:56,196
We called all of them
and they all of them told us,
834
00:51:56,279 --> 00:52:00,242
"Mmm. [clicks tongue]
Mmm, we don't want to do it with you."
835
00:52:00,325 --> 00:52:04,079
Or they had no time, or they said,
"Oh, you can't do this testing."
836
00:52:04,162 --> 00:52:05,122
"Why not?"
837
00:52:05,831 --> 00:52:07,749
"You can't do this testing." [chuckles]
838
00:52:07,833 --> 00:52:09,584
They just didn't want to do it with us.
839
00:52:10,335 --> 00:52:14,631
Those service agencies that offer the mobile measurements
840
00:52:14,714 --> 00:52:20,095
depend on the car industry, so they didn't want to harm their clients.
841
00:52:20,971 --> 00:52:23,807
And so, we had to go to Switzerland
to do this testing.
842
00:52:23,890 --> 00:52:27,769
[man in German] We did the same teston the street that we did in the lab.
843
00:52:28,478 --> 00:52:31,648
[Koberstein] We compared how is the car acting in the lab
844
00:52:31,731 --> 00:52:35,277
and how is the same car actingon the road.
845
00:52:35,360 --> 00:52:39,489
And it was amazing to see
that it is dirty.
846
00:52:39,573 --> 00:52:43,535
Not just a little bit.
It is extremely dirty.
847
00:52:44,160 --> 00:52:47,122
The Volkswagen with an illegal defeat device
848
00:52:47,205 --> 00:52:49,916
and the BMW and the Mercedes
849
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:56,798
emitted up to 400-500% higher
than during the laboratory test.
850
00:52:56,882 --> 00:53:02,220
That shows clearly
that those cars have a defeat device.
851
00:53:04,222 --> 00:53:06,933
[Gibney] When Hans asked the car companiesfor comment,
852
00:53:07,017 --> 00:53:10,270
they responded by threatening to suefor hundreds of millions of dollars
853
00:53:10,353 --> 00:53:12,355
to prevent the broadcast.
854
00:53:12,439 --> 00:53:14,858
But Hans pushed forward and exposed
855
00:53:14,941 --> 00:53:19,487
not only the cheating but the way the German government enabled it.
856
00:53:19,571 --> 00:53:24,868
Every manufacturer in Europe
is using calibration strategies
857
00:53:24,951 --> 00:53:28,163
that, in the US,
would be considered defeat devices.
858
00:53:28,830 --> 00:53:30,290
Every one of them.
859
00:53:30,790 --> 00:53:32,459
And what's really interesting here
860
00:53:32,542 --> 00:53:35,837
is that if you read the language for what a defeat device is,
861
00:53:35,921 --> 00:53:38,298
in Europe and the US,they're almost identical.
862
00:53:38,381 --> 00:53:41,635
Almost word for word. So, what's going on here?
863
00:53:42,427 --> 00:53:46,932
What it really comes down to is thatthere are three exceptions
864
00:53:47,015 --> 00:53:50,143
for cases in which calibration changesare allowed.
865
00:53:50,227 --> 00:53:53,605
And one of them is for safety and protection of the engine.
866
00:53:54,230 --> 00:53:57,817
In Europe, the manufacturers just claim,
867
00:53:57,901 --> 00:54:00,862
"Oh, I need this
for protection of the engine."
868
00:54:00,946 --> 00:54:03,823
Or, "I need this for protection
of the after-treatment system."
869
00:54:03,907 --> 00:54:07,410
And those claims go unchallenged.
870
00:54:08,620 --> 00:54:10,247
[Koberstein] The understandingof the German government
871
00:54:10,330 --> 00:54:14,209
is defeat devices are generally allowed
872
00:54:14,751 --> 00:54:18,171
because there's an exemption
to protect the engines.
873
00:54:18,254 --> 00:54:19,881
Any engine must be protected,
874
00:54:19,965 --> 00:54:23,426
so all the defeat devices we know
in diesel cars are allowed.
875
00:54:23,510 --> 00:54:28,056
That's the interpretation of
the German government and it is absurd.
876
00:54:28,139 --> 00:54:30,308
[Gibney] It seems crazy that
the German government cares more
877
00:54:30,392 --> 00:54:33,019
about protecting engines
than human beings.
878
00:54:33,103 --> 00:54:37,983
-Is it this way throughout Europe?
-Well, the primary issue in Europe
879
00:54:38,066 --> 00:54:43,071
isn't so much their requirements
which, for the most part, are world-class.
880
00:54:43,154 --> 00:54:46,282
But Europe does tend to have a problem
with enforcement.
881
00:54:46,366 --> 00:54:49,828
The standards are set at
the European level for all the countries.
882
00:54:49,911 --> 00:54:54,082
But enforcement is done
at the individual country level.
883
00:54:54,165 --> 00:55:00,088
Further, every country agrees to accept
enforcement in every other country.
884
00:55:00,755 --> 00:55:04,175
So this leads to a situationwhich the manufacturers go shopping.
885
00:55:04,259 --> 00:55:07,220
Which country is going to dothe least enforcement?
886
00:55:08,263 --> 00:55:10,515
[Gibney] In Europe,it's a game of musical chairs.
887
00:55:10,598 --> 00:55:12,934
If enforcement is too strictin France or Finland,
888
00:55:13,018 --> 00:55:15,020
try Luxembourg or Malta.
889
00:55:15,103 --> 00:55:17,981
They may need the moneyor factories that might be built,
890
00:55:18,064 --> 00:55:21,192
so they're willing to look the other waywhen companies cheat.
891
00:55:31,244 --> 00:55:34,956
Companies often claim they can't improve safety or pollution controls
892
00:55:35,040 --> 00:55:37,083
or they'd go out of business.
893
00:55:37,167 --> 00:55:39,669
For VW, the situation is even more proneto corruption.
894
00:55:39,753 --> 00:55:45,675
The German province of Lower Saxony actually owns 20% of VW's voting stock.
895
00:55:45,759 --> 00:55:47,218
Given that fact,
896
00:55:47,302 --> 00:55:51,473
is it likely that Lower Saxonywill conduct a thorough investigation
897
00:55:51,556 --> 00:55:53,767
of its biggest profit center?
898
00:55:53,850 --> 00:55:57,479
[Schmitt] The government coveredthe car companies.
899
00:55:57,562 --> 00:56:00,148
Why? Because of its jobs.
900
00:56:00,231 --> 00:56:03,693
They're very worried
if people are out of a job
901
00:56:03,777 --> 00:56:08,531
because then they're lining up
outside of the agencies
902
00:56:08,615 --> 00:56:10,784
and collect money
and they vote them out of power.
903
00:56:10,867 --> 00:56:14,287
Any national government in Europe
has the problem
904
00:56:14,370 --> 00:56:16,831
if it has a national car industry.
905
00:56:16,915 --> 00:56:19,542
"Oh, how are we going to deal
with this problem?"
906
00:56:19,626 --> 00:56:24,005
They all think, "Mmm, better not to harm
our national car industry,"
907
00:56:24,089 --> 00:56:28,051
because they can only enforce the law
for their own car industry,
908
00:56:28,134 --> 00:56:31,596
not for the German or French one,
just for the British one.
909
00:56:31,679 --> 00:56:34,891
And so, any national government
is thinking,
910
00:56:34,974 --> 00:56:39,896
"Should I harm my national car industry
if others won't?
911
00:56:39,979 --> 00:56:43,483
No, I will not do this. I am not stupid."
912
00:56:44,818 --> 00:56:47,987
And they are still selling dirty cars.
913
00:56:49,072 --> 00:56:52,033
[Gibney] To this day,despite the VW scandal,
914
00:56:52,117 --> 00:56:56,079
car manufacturers are selling dirty carsthroughout Europe and the world.
915
00:56:56,454 --> 00:56:59,833
It always sounds good to say,"We need the jobs."
916
00:56:59,916 --> 00:57:02,627
But what if you were offered a jobat an assembly line
917
00:57:02,710 --> 00:57:07,215
to make products that killed people? Would you take that job?
918
00:57:07,298 --> 00:57:09,467
[train horn blowing]
919
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:12,554
[German] What's going on in Europe?
920
00:57:12,637 --> 00:57:16,099
They have these plans for how they're going to reduce air pollution,
921
00:57:16,182 --> 00:57:19,269
and they've had these for 10, 20 years.
922
00:57:20,186 --> 00:57:22,856
They made projections about what's gonna happen in the future.
923
00:57:22,939 --> 00:57:27,026
They have not been meeting their projections for ambient air quality.
924
00:57:27,652 --> 00:57:31,239
The pollutants in the air are higherthan they've always projected,
925
00:57:31,865 --> 00:57:33,783
and now we finally know why.
926
00:57:35,869 --> 00:57:39,539
The one thing that the governments
in Europe did after the VW scandals,
927
00:57:39,622 --> 00:57:41,291
they did a lot of testing.
928
00:57:41,374 --> 00:57:45,753
So we have in-use tests
on over 150 vehicles in Europe now,
929
00:57:45,837 --> 00:57:46,754
and it's clear.
930
00:57:46,838 --> 00:57:50,091
The diesels in Europe
are six or seven times dirtier
931
00:57:50,175 --> 00:57:51,468
than the standards allow.
932
00:57:52,552 --> 00:57:56,514
So the ambient air qualityin every city in Europe
933
00:57:56,598 --> 00:57:58,683
is worse than it should've been,
934
00:57:58,766 --> 00:58:02,228
and this is having health impactsand premature deaths.
935
00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:08,151
In Germany, it's more than
10,000 premature deaths per year
936
00:58:08,234 --> 00:58:11,196
only due to nitrogen dioxide.
937
00:58:11,988 --> 00:58:14,908
That's much more than we have
938
00:58:14,991 --> 00:58:19,329
in losses and deaths
due to traffic accidents.
939
00:58:21,831 --> 00:58:25,752
I am living in Berlin for almost 20 years now,
940
00:58:25,835 --> 00:58:28,338
and I am living in a zonewhere it's green.
941
00:58:28,421 --> 00:58:33,718
Lot of trees, parks.There's a lake, there's little traffic.
942
00:58:34,594 --> 00:58:37,138
We did measurements on the road where I live
943
00:58:38,348 --> 00:58:44,687
and those measurements showed that the levels of nitrogen dioxide
944
00:58:44,771 --> 00:58:50,193
are much higher than the average annual limit that is legally allowed.
945
00:58:53,071 --> 00:58:55,490
I wouldn't have ever expected that.
946
00:58:55,573 --> 00:58:57,033
That's really a huge problem.
947
00:58:57,116 --> 00:59:01,663
We think we have an air pollution problem
wherever we see many cars
948
00:59:01,746 --> 00:59:04,582
and wherever many cars are driving
at the moment.
949
00:59:05,333 --> 00:59:07,585
But the problem of nitrogen dioxide is
950
00:59:07,669 --> 00:59:11,506
that's even there where
you do not expect it to be in the cities.
951
00:59:11,589 --> 00:59:15,635
We did measurements in a kindergarten
that's very close to where I'm living.
952
00:59:16,761 --> 00:59:21,266
The levels within the kindergarten
were above the legal limits.
953
00:59:22,976 --> 00:59:25,728
[Gibney] The German car companiesdidn't want their customers to know
954
00:59:25,812 --> 00:59:28,189
how harmful were their diesel cars.
955
00:59:28,815 --> 00:59:31,943
VW, in particular, wanted to fight back.
956
00:59:32,026 --> 00:59:34,904
To show the benefits of clean diesel cars,
957
00:59:34,988 --> 00:59:39,659
VW embarked on a plan to do their own tests on human beings.
958
00:59:42,662 --> 00:59:47,500
Step 1: Establish a phony research company called EUGT,
959
00:59:47,584 --> 00:59:53,506
funded by VW, Mercedes and BMW,to study the effects of diesel exhaust.
960
00:59:54,424 --> 00:59:56,509
This secret plan to fool the public
961
00:59:56,593 --> 01:00:00,096
was uncovered by a lawyer representingangry American consumers.
962
01:00:01,556 --> 01:00:07,770
[Melkersen] So, EUGT, the fake nonprofit,pays approximately $730,000
963
01:00:07,854 --> 01:00:12,984
to a company called Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, LRRI,
964
01:00:13,067 --> 01:00:14,777
to conduct a study.
965
01:00:14,861 --> 01:00:19,115
The purpose of the study, purportedly,
was to attempt to show
966
01:00:19,198 --> 01:00:21,576
that the new diesel
technology represented
967
01:00:21,659 --> 01:00:25,538
by these Volkswagen TDI
Clean Diesel vehicles
968
01:00:25,622 --> 01:00:29,208
was much more environmentally friendly
than the old diesel technology.
969
01:00:29,292 --> 01:00:31,961
It would not result
in the type of health problems
970
01:00:32,045 --> 01:00:35,340
that diesel exhausts
from old diesel technology would create.
971
01:00:35,965 --> 01:00:37,967
And the person
that was in charge of that study
972
01:00:38,051 --> 01:00:40,470
was a guy
by the name of Dr. Jake McDonald,
973
01:00:40,553 --> 01:00:43,056
whose deposition I just recently took.
974
01:00:43,139 --> 01:00:45,600
Did you ever have any information that
975
01:00:45,683 --> 01:00:50,563
any of the monies that you all received
to do the study came from Volkswagen?
976
01:00:51,356 --> 01:00:54,942
I presumed that because Volkswagen
was a contributing member of EUGT
977
01:00:55,026 --> 01:00:56,611
that they contributed money to the study.
978
01:00:56,694 --> 01:00:58,154
But I didn't know...
979
01:00:58,237 --> 01:01:04,160
I had no details in terms of
who contributed what amount.
980
01:01:04,661 --> 01:01:07,038
All I knew was the contract was with EUGT.
981
01:01:07,121 --> 01:01:11,542
So, the setup happens
in Lovelace's laboratory
982
01:01:11,626 --> 01:01:12,919
in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
983
01:01:14,253 --> 01:01:17,465
They procure a dyno to run these cars on.
984
01:01:17,548 --> 01:01:21,719
That dyno was selectedby none other than Stuart Johnson,
985
01:01:21,803 --> 01:01:25,640
and personally delivered thereto the LRRI facilities.
986
01:01:26,265 --> 01:01:32,522
You had involvement
in assisting with this study.
987
01:01:33,815 --> 01:01:34,857
True?
988
01:01:35,566 --> 01:01:37,068
Limited involvement.
989
01:01:37,735 --> 01:01:41,739
[Gibney] Stuart Johnson wasn't the only VW executive involved.
990
01:01:41,823 --> 01:01:44,200
James Liang, a German engineer
991
01:01:44,283 --> 01:01:46,744
who helped with the development of the defeat device,
992
01:01:46,828 --> 01:01:48,996
also helped shape the study.
993
01:01:49,080 --> 01:01:55,461
[Melkersen] James Liang personallydelivered a TDI 2013 red Beetle
994
01:01:55,545 --> 01:01:57,630
for purposes of doing this testing.
995
01:01:58,339 --> 01:02:01,300
Volkswagen USA insisted
996
01:02:01,384 --> 01:02:07,306
that James Liang be given real-time access
to LRRI's data.
997
01:02:08,516 --> 01:02:13,521
Is it unusual for a manufacturer
to require
998
01:02:13,604 --> 01:02:17,650
real-time monitoring
of what is happening in your study?
999
01:02:17,734 --> 01:02:19,277
[lawyer] Objection. Vague.
1000
01:02:20,319 --> 01:02:21,654
Calls for speculation.
1001
01:02:24,782 --> 01:02:26,200
Um...
1002
01:02:27,994 --> 01:02:31,414
It's the first time
that I've experienced that.
1003
01:02:31,497 --> 01:02:34,375
In your entire career,
this has never happened previously?
1004
01:02:34,459 --> 01:02:35,543
Correct.
1005
01:02:35,626 --> 01:02:38,212
That was necessary to ensure
1006
01:02:38,296 --> 01:02:42,425
that these so-called clean diesel vehicles
would run in test mode
1007
01:02:42,508 --> 01:02:47,346
and produce the fraudulent emissions for
purposes of this fake scientific research.
1008
01:02:48,848 --> 01:02:51,976
What they're doing at the same timeis they're attempting to compare
1009
01:02:52,059 --> 01:02:55,563
their so-called new technology with old technology.
1010
01:02:55,646 --> 01:03:01,736
So they are running a 2004 Ford F-250 on the dyno also.
1011
01:03:02,695 --> 01:03:06,199
In the original draft,the original proposal, the study,
1012
01:03:06,282 --> 01:03:10,369
they were actually going to have a human sitting on an exercise bike.
1013
01:03:10,453 --> 01:03:13,498
There's actually a diagram of thisin the proposal
1014
01:03:13,581 --> 01:03:16,667
where a human participant would sit riding an exercise bike.
1015
01:03:16,751 --> 01:03:21,756
They would then be exposed to gasdirectly from the diesel vehicles.
1016
01:03:23,049 --> 01:03:26,886
And then, they would poke and prod
that person later to determine, uh,
1017
01:03:26,969 --> 01:03:29,931
what type of health effects
1018
01:03:30,014 --> 01:03:33,935
they would see
from this person being gassed.
1019
01:03:34,560 --> 01:03:41,108
Were you involved in discussions about
doing this study on humans?
1020
01:03:42,777 --> 01:03:46,614
-Yes.
-In retrospect, does that seem...
1021
01:03:47,990 --> 01:03:49,659
ridiculous?
1022
01:03:49,742 --> 01:03:52,829
[lawyer] Objection. Calls for speculation.
1023
01:03:53,663 --> 01:03:56,624
In retrospect,
the optics aren't very good.
1024
01:04:01,462 --> 01:04:06,884
Obviously, one cannot help to think back
1025
01:04:06,968 --> 01:04:10,972
throughout history
of another series of events
1026
01:04:11,055 --> 01:04:14,433
involving individuals being gassed
1027
01:04:14,517 --> 01:04:19,272
by a person who was actually
at the opening
1028
01:04:19,355 --> 01:04:21,399
of the very first Volkswagen factory
1029
01:04:22,066 --> 01:04:26,279
and gave a speech there in connection with that opening.
1030
01:04:30,700 --> 01:04:33,786
Did you recommend against
doing this study on humans?
1031
01:04:34,954 --> 01:04:36,664
[clicks tongue] Um...
1032
01:04:38,332 --> 01:04:39,709
I don't recall.
1033
01:04:39,792 --> 01:04:46,382
I know that, um, David Geanacopoulos
was involved in the discussion,
1034
01:04:46,465 --> 01:04:48,301
and he didn't like the idea.
1035
01:04:50,845 --> 01:04:55,099
[Gibney] But VW did not abandonthe idea of the experiment.
1036
01:04:55,182 --> 01:04:59,020
Someone suggested that the test be performed on NHPs.
1037
01:04:59,103 --> 01:05:01,564
Non-human primates.
1038
01:05:04,150 --> 01:05:05,651
[animal screeching]
1039
01:05:14,493 --> 01:05:15,995
[chittering]
1040
01:05:35,348 --> 01:05:37,183
[Melkersen] They set up tubing
1041
01:05:37,266 --> 01:05:41,312
from the back of the tailpipeup through the ceiling.
1042
01:05:44,231 --> 01:05:47,026
The gas would then come downinto the chamber.
1043
01:05:52,782 --> 01:05:55,576
These monkeys have been trainedto watch TV,
1044
01:05:55,660 --> 01:05:56,911
and so what they would do
1045
01:05:56,994 --> 01:06:00,081
is they would actually play
for them cartoons
1046
01:06:00,164 --> 01:06:02,124
and have them watch cartoons.
1047
01:06:10,383 --> 01:06:14,095
[Melkersen] After they would've beenexposed to the TDI Clean Diesel gases,
1048
01:06:14,178 --> 01:06:18,808
they're then subsequently exposing them
to the Ford F-250 gases.
1049
01:06:18,891 --> 01:06:20,559
[engine starts]
1050
01:06:22,812 --> 01:06:26,232
The nitrogen oxideand other particles of exhaust
1051
01:06:26,315 --> 01:06:28,609
that would be coming out of this F-250
1052
01:06:28,693 --> 01:06:32,196
are very, very dirty, and very noxious, very harmful.
1053
01:06:33,239 --> 01:06:34,532
[music playing on TV]
1054
01:06:38,285 --> 01:06:40,079
[voice on TV] Wake up!Where's everybody going?
1055
01:06:41,872 --> 01:06:44,458
[Melkersen] The monkeywould be exposed to that gas
1056
01:06:44,542 --> 01:06:46,961
for a three- or four-hour period of time,
1057
01:06:47,044 --> 01:06:50,798
after which time they would takethe monkey back to a separate facility
1058
01:06:50,881 --> 01:06:53,467
and test it, taking blood samples.
1059
01:06:54,176 --> 01:06:56,470
They would stick a tubedown the monkey's throat,
1060
01:06:56,554 --> 01:07:00,057
in order to scrub samplesfrom inside of the monkey's lungs.
1061
01:07:00,141 --> 01:07:01,892
[whimpering]
1062
01:07:11,277 --> 01:07:13,195
[maniacal laughter on TV]
1063
01:07:15,239 --> 01:07:17,074
[Melkersen] Do you know
what happened to the monkeys
1064
01:07:17,158 --> 01:07:20,036
after the testing was completed?
1065
01:07:20,536 --> 01:07:24,415
We didn't ship them to Volkswagen,
if that's what you're asking. [chuckles]
1066
01:07:24,498 --> 01:07:26,584
[stammering] They... We...
1067
01:07:27,376 --> 01:07:29,253
I don't recall. My... We...
1068
01:07:29,336 --> 01:07:34,842
It was a non-terminal study,
so the animals were not euthanized
1069
01:07:34,925 --> 01:07:39,638
to be able to look at any sort of
more invasive responses. So...
1070
01:07:39,722 --> 01:07:42,433
[Melkersen] When Dr. McDonald realized
1071
01:07:42,516 --> 01:07:46,604
that these emissions that he tested were,
in fact, fraudulent,
1072
01:07:46,687 --> 01:07:51,317
and that he had been duped and set up
to be used by Volkswagen as a pawn,
1073
01:07:52,276 --> 01:07:55,362
he said that this report cannot be published.
1074
01:07:58,699 --> 01:08:03,454
You know, there is a concern, obviously,
amongst Volkswagen that,
1075
01:08:03,537 --> 01:08:07,708
if a jury were to ever hear
about any of this stuff,
1076
01:08:07,792 --> 01:08:11,712
that could really impact
the verdict in this case,
1077
01:08:11,796 --> 01:08:15,382
and, in fact, Volkswagen has filed a motion with the court,
1078
01:08:15,466 --> 01:08:19,220
specifically asking the court to exclude any mention of any of this.
1079
01:08:19,303 --> 01:08:20,805
[monkey screeching]
1080
01:08:24,225 --> 01:08:26,227
[Loretta Lynch]
Today, the Department of Justice,
1081
01:08:26,310 --> 01:08:28,229
the Environmental Protection Agency
1082
01:08:28,312 --> 01:08:30,648
and the US Customs and Border Protection
1083
01:08:30,731 --> 01:08:33,734
have reached a global resolution
with Volkswagen
1084
01:08:33,818 --> 01:08:37,738
that carries both criminal
and civil penalties.
1085
01:08:37,822 --> 01:08:42,785
As part of this resolution, Volkswagen is
pleading guilty to three felonies.
1086
01:08:42,868 --> 01:08:47,081
Conspiracy to defraud the United States,
to commit wire fraud,
1087
01:08:47,164 --> 01:08:50,543
and to violate the Clean Air Act,
obstruction of justice,
1088
01:08:50,626 --> 01:08:53,587
and importation of goods
by false statements.
1089
01:08:55,673 --> 01:08:59,969
[Gibney] In January 2017,James Liang pled guilty to fraud
1090
01:09:00,052 --> 01:09:02,680
and was sentenced to 40 months in prison.
1091
01:09:02,763 --> 01:09:07,017
Oliver Schmidt was arrested in Miami after a Caribbean vacation,
1092
01:09:07,101 --> 01:09:09,687
just as he was about to board a flight to Germany.
1093
01:09:10,563 --> 01:09:12,690
In August of 2017,
1094
01:09:12,773 --> 01:09:16,110
he pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud the government.
1095
01:09:16,193 --> 01:09:19,572
He was one of six VW executives indicted by the US.
1096
01:09:20,948 --> 01:09:24,451
[Melkersen] Did anybody ever instruct you
during this timeframe
1097
01:09:24,535 --> 01:09:26,412
to basically keep your mouth shut?
1098
01:09:26,495 --> 01:09:29,373
[clicks tongue] I don't recall that.
1099
01:09:35,379 --> 01:09:37,214
He said that's not a "no."
1100
01:09:38,299 --> 01:09:39,717
I don't remember.
1101
01:09:39,800 --> 01:09:43,888
[Melkersen] You're aware that
Oliver Schmidt recently pled guilty
1102
01:09:43,971 --> 01:09:46,348
to a felony in federal court in Michigan,
are you not?
1103
01:09:46,432 --> 01:09:47,933
I'm aware of that.
1104
01:09:48,017 --> 01:09:50,477
[Gibney] As of September 2017,
1105
01:09:50,561 --> 01:09:53,314
Stuart Johnson has not been chargedwith a crime.
1106
01:09:53,397 --> 01:09:56,192
There are indications that he may be a cooperating witness
1107
01:09:56,275 --> 01:09:58,736
for the ongoing federal investigation.
1108
01:09:59,695 --> 01:10:04,200
Michael Horn resigned from VW in 2016and returned to Germany.
1109
01:10:05,367 --> 01:10:09,079
Martin Winterkorn remains untouchedby the criminal investigation.
1110
01:10:10,956 --> 01:10:12,833
Outside of Germany, other carmakers,
1111
01:10:12,917 --> 01:10:17,838
including GM and Fiat Chrysler, have been accused of using defeat devices.
1112
01:10:17,922 --> 01:10:22,051
But even after all the fines, the criminal charges and the scandals,
1113
01:10:22,134 --> 01:10:26,513
VW realized its dream of becoming the world's largest carmaker.
1114
01:10:28,182 --> 01:10:29,850
[crowd applauding]
1115
01:10:29,934 --> 01:10:33,145
At the same time,with the election of President Trump,
1116
01:10:33,229 --> 01:10:34,396
the federal government declared
1117
01:10:34,480 --> 01:10:36,607
that corporate profits would now be more important
1118
01:10:36,690 --> 01:10:38,609
than protecting the environment.
1119
01:10:39,360 --> 01:10:45,783
In order to fulfill my solemn duty
to protect America and its citizens,
1120
01:10:46,867 --> 01:10:49,954
the United States will withdraw
1121
01:10:51,705 --> 01:10:56,210
from the Paris Climate Accord.
1122
01:10:56,293 --> 01:10:57,962
[applause continues]
1123
01:10:59,004 --> 01:11:00,673
[cheering and applause]
1124
01:11:01,507 --> 01:11:02,800
Thank you.
1125
01:11:02,883 --> 01:11:06,178
[Gibney] This announcement made the US, Syria and Nicaragua
1126
01:11:06,262 --> 01:11:09,974
the only three nations on Earth to abandonthe effort to prevent global warming.
1127
01:11:12,768 --> 01:11:14,395
The Trump administrationhas also threatened
1128
01:11:14,478 --> 01:11:17,273
to undermine CARB in California,
1129
01:11:17,356 --> 01:11:20,484
because of CARB'sstrict air-pollution controls.
1130
01:11:20,818 --> 01:11:22,903
[Ayala] When you lookat a state like California,
1131
01:11:22,987 --> 01:11:25,531
we have goals for 2030 and 2050.
1132
01:11:25,614 --> 01:11:27,408
You know, long-term goals.
1133
01:11:27,491 --> 01:11:28,951
We need to start thinking now
1134
01:11:29,034 --> 01:11:31,829
and laying out ideas
for how we're gonna get there.
1135
01:11:33,747 --> 01:11:36,417
[Schneiderman] It's hard for people to remember now, New York,
1136
01:11:36,500 --> 01:11:38,002
when the smog problem, caused by NOx...
1137
01:11:38,085 --> 01:11:40,838
It's exactly the stuff that was being emitted from these cars.
1138
01:11:40,921 --> 01:11:43,173
It was really bad back in the '60s and '70s.
1139
01:11:43,257 --> 01:11:47,303
It was a city where people would get sick,people would die from the smog.
1140
01:11:48,512 --> 01:11:52,141
So, this is something we spent decades in the United States trying to clean up.
1141
01:11:52,224 --> 01:11:53,892
We've had great success.
1142
01:11:53,976 --> 01:11:57,313
The American people don't want to undo the regulations.
1143
01:11:57,396 --> 01:11:59,940
State environmental laws
are a very important backstop.
1144
01:12:00,024 --> 01:12:02,026
The federalist system was designed
1145
01:12:02,109 --> 01:12:05,696
so that states can fill in
if the federal government does not.
1146
01:12:05,779 --> 01:12:09,575
That's why we're pushing so hard
on some of these policies,
1147
01:12:09,658 --> 01:12:14,246
because this is really
about impacting on people's lives.
1148
01:12:28,510 --> 01:12:30,929
[Gibney] When my wife turned in our car,
1149
01:12:31,013 --> 01:12:34,433
it was sent to an asphalt graveyardfor VW's dirty diesels
1150
01:12:34,516 --> 01:12:37,102
in the shadow of the old Detroit Lions stadium.
1151
01:12:38,771 --> 01:12:40,981
From here, according to the company,
1152
01:12:41,065 --> 01:12:44,193
they will either be fixed,recycled or destroyed.
1153
01:12:47,696 --> 01:12:49,323
Every car in the lot represents
1154
01:12:49,406 --> 01:12:52,534
the sum of an economic calculation made by the company
1155
01:12:52,618 --> 01:12:54,411
between risk and reward.
1156
01:12:54,953 --> 01:12:58,499
In that way, VW is not so differentfrom other companies.
1157
01:12:58,582 --> 01:13:01,251
They see themselvesas financial abstractions,
1158
01:13:01,335 --> 01:13:06,173
pressured by competition to build models on profit, loss and market share.
1159
01:13:07,049 --> 01:13:09,885
But when many of us think of the lungs of our children,
1160
01:13:09,968 --> 01:13:13,055
scarred by NOx fumesthat could have been contained,
1161
01:13:13,138 --> 01:13:16,350
we wonder if the equation is missingan important variable.
1162
01:13:17,351 --> 01:13:21,688
How to balance the cost of a carwith the value of a human life?
1163
01:13:35,786 --> 01:13:37,996
[music playing]
110479
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