Yesterday’s launch of the U.S.-spec 2016 Volkswagen Passat was supposed to be a celebration for Volkswagen of America. Taking place in a trendy waterfront warehouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard overlooking Manhattan across the river, it was all set to be a swanky media affair, complete with a live performance by Lenny Kravitz.
But in light of Friday’s revelation by the EPA that Volkswagen had purposely engineered many of its TDI diesel-powered cars to cheat our nation’s emissions tests, the journalists in attendance hoped to learn about more than just the minor aesthetic changes to the automaker’s midsize family sedan.
So when Michael Horn, president and CEO of Volkwagen Group of America, took the stage, he couldn’t simply chat up the debut of the new Passat. Instead, he gave a brief yet frank appraisal of the situation—one that, while it offered zero detail as to why VW went down this road in the first place, at least acknowledged the controversy that now surrounds the auto industry giant.
“As you have seen since Friday, the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, has issued a statement and reality that Volkswagen Group manipulated engine software in our TDI diesel cars, and we violated emissions standards,” Horn began immediately after taking the stage. “The CEO of our parent company Dr. Martin Winterkorn said yesterday Volkswagen will fully cooperate with the responsible agencies, and much much more important as I see it, he stated that he was personally and deeply sorry for this—that Volkswagen has broken the trust of our customers, and the public here in America. And lastly he stated that this matter, and this is I think common sense, now this is the first priority for him personally and for the entire product management [team].
“So let’s be clear about this: Our company was dishonest with the EPA and the California Air Resources Board, and with all of you,” Horn continued. “And in my German words, we’ve totally screwed up. We must fix those cars, and prevent this from ever happening again, and we have to make things right—with the government, the public, our customers, our employees, and also very importantly our dealers.
“This kind of behavior, I can tell you out of my heart, it’s completely inconsistent with our core values. The three core values of our brand are value, innovation, and in this context very importantly, responsibility—for our employees, for our stakeholders, and for the environment. So it goes totally against what we believe is right. Along with our German headquarters we are committed to do what must be done, and to begin to restore your trust.
“Of course we didn’t invite you here just to talk about TDI, and of course we could have also canceled this,” Horn said. “But we said first of all we need to explain ourselves here and begin to straighten things out, and secondly we’re here because we want to see something pretty exciting now, the newly redesigned 2016 Volkswagen Passat.”
Then the CEO explained the changes made to the newly redesigned Passat, as three examples rolled into the warehouse and onto the stage. After the standard new-car-unveiling speech, Horn wrapped things up by again returning to the elephant in the room.
“I would like to put this really into perspective. The United States is very important for Volkswagen. We have more than five million customers on the road driving our cars, and more than five million customers visiting our showrooms every year . . . . We must do this with honor. All these people, whether it’s our customers, dealer families, or employees and their families, depend on us to run a successful business here with high ethical standards. We must do this in order to carry out our responsibilities to all of our stakeholders.
“My commitment first and foremost is to make sure that our entire company does what it takes to resolve this big challenge, and to restore your trust. Our future depends on turning this into an opportunity—to learn, to improve—and we are ready to do so. And I am confident and I’m personally committed that this company will do what needs to be done to make things right.
“You can be sure that we will continue not only to correct this TDI issue, and to straighten things out, and to pay what we have to pay, and we will continue to work very hard to make our story in the U.S. for the customers and dealers and employees successful.”
This story originally appeared on roadandtrack.com.
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