Report: Bosch Warned VW About Diesel Emissions Cheating in 2007

The main question surrounding Volkswagen’s emissions-cheating TDI program is: How many people knew about the automaker’s plans? According to a German newspaper, auto-industry supplier Bosch had a hunch that VW was planning on using tampered engine-management software as far back as 2007—and the supplier warned the automaker that such a plan would be highly illegal.

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That’s the word from German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, as translated by Automotive News. According to the report, Bosch claims to have supplied diesel engine-management software to Volkswagen under the impression that it would be used only in vehicle testing. That software, which was able to activate emissions-control devices when a testing environment was detected and deactivate them during normal driving, somehow ended up in production vehicles. According to Bild am Sonntag, Bosch wrote to Volkswagen in 2007 warning the automaker that using this software in publicly sold vehicles was illegal.

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It doesn’t seem as though Volkswagen listened.

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In a statement released last week, Bosch revealed that it supplied common-rail fuel-injection systems, as well as supply and dosing modules for exhaust-gas treatment, on the Volkswagen and Audi models at the center of the growing emissions-cheating scandal. “As is usual in the automotive supply industry, Bosch supplies these components to the automaker’s specifications,” the statement reads. “How these components are calibrated and integrated into complete vehicle systems is the responsibility of each automaker.”

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In addition to the 2007 warning from Bosch, it seems that one of Volkswagen’s own engineers tried to blow the whistle on the illegal emissions-cheating program in 2011, as German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported in its Sunday edition.

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Automotive News reports that the crisis began when then–VW brand chief Wolfgang Bernhard and engineer Rudolf Krebs began developing a new diesel engine for the U.S. market in 2005. Bernhard and Krebs realized that an AdBlue urea exhaust-treatment system would be needed to meet U.S. emissions standards, at an estimated cost of $335 per vehicle. Reportedly, VW finance heads determined this cost was too high, as a company-wide cost-cutting exercise was then underway.

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• How Volkswagen Got Busted for Skirting EPA Diesel Emissions Standards

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• EPA Will Change Emissions-Testing Protocol in Response to VW Scandal

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• VW Diesel Emissions Scandal: Ongoing Coverage from Car and Driver

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Bernhard left VW in 2007 and Krebs was moved to another role in the same year, while the engine they collaborated on ended up in numerous VW Group vehicles with the emissions-cheating software in place. Both Bernhard and Audi engine boss Wolfgang Hatz denied any knowledge of illegal activity.

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