The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal Essay

Professional Ethics and Responsibilities: The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal



In what was deemed a major blunder on the part of VW’s executives, and a blot to the long-term reputation of the Volkswagen Company, the Volkswagen emissions scandal was uncovered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which had found out that “many VW cars being sold in America had a ‘defeat device’ – or software – in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested, changing the performance accordingly to improve the results” (Hotten, 2015). Thanks to the emissions scandal, the company has had to contend with various costs – ranging from loss of confidence on the part of its customers, to actual monetary losses, to much more.



It should be noted, from the onset, that the automaker may have lost the confidence of many of its loyal customers following the scandal. From the scandal, it emerged that VW was ready to cut corners so as to enhance its bottom-line. Towards this end, it is inevitable that prospective consumers of the company’s products would query the company’s ethical bearing. If the company could deliberately put the environment at risk through blatant disregard for environmental and emission regulations, what would prevent the same company from compromising on car safety so as to further enhance its profitability? In that regard, therefore, the scandal could have cost the company both present and future business. As a matter of fact, when the scandal came to light, Martin Winterkorn, the CEO of the VW group at the time, was of the opinion that his company’s actions had broken not only the trust of its customers, but also the trust of the general public (Hotten, 2015).



The scandal also cost the automaker greatly on the financial front. As of September of 2017, the total cost of the scandal to VW was approximated to have hit $30 billion (Schwartz and Bryan, 2017). According to Schwartz and Bryan (2017), towards the last bit of last year’s second half, the company took “another $3 billion charge to fix diesel engines in the United States, lifting the total bill for its emissions-test cheating scandal to around $30 billion.” The company’s stock also took a hit following the emissions scandal. According to Stash (2016) the announcement of the scandal effectively led to 30% drop in VW’s stock price in a single day.…