Faster, Higher, Farther: How One of the World's Largest Automakers Committed a Massive and Stunning Fraud
by Jack Ewing · 22 May 2017 · 434pp · 114,583 words
art. “The entire assembly of the Phaeton is made into a public spectacle,” Volkswagen said. Piëch entrusted Phaeton development to one of his closest protégés, Martin Winterkorn, who had been head of quality control at Audi and was known for his attention to detail as well as his penchant for yelling when
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doom. By the end of the year, he was gone, followed soon afterward by Bernhard. The new chief executive appointed by the supervisory board was Martin Winterkorn, the man who had overseen development of the Phaeton and was head of Audi. In contrast to Pischetsrieder, Winterkorn had a reputation for being obedient
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still playing out in court, the magazine Der Spiegel published a short item about an upcoming Volkswagen supervisory board meeting that included a startling assertion. Martin Winterkorn, not yet a year in office as chief executive, planned to present the board with a plan to push sales of Volkswagen cars and trucks
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Cayenne SUV, than just the appeal of being eco-friendly. The engineers in Wolfsburg had tried and, despite the customary threats and verbal abuse from Martin Winterkorn, failed to achieve the same fuel economy as a Prius. But the EA 189 two-liter motor installed in cars exported to the United States
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to get a copy. In May 2014, after taking stock of the situation, Gottweis wrote a one-page report that was included in the packet Martin Winterkorn’s aides put together for him to read over the weekend. The packet was known internally as “Wikopost” (“Wiko” was one of Winterkorn’s nicknames
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art, and worth many sacrifices to achieve. Winterkorn spoke last, about an hour after the presentations had begun. An announcer introduced him as Professor Doctor Martin Winterkorn. The implication was that he was a man not only powerful but learned. Winterkorn’s appearance as the last presenter reflected not only his rank
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to become a member of the Volkswagen supervisory board. They attended an auto industry awards ceremony in Berlin in 2011. (Sean Gallup, Getty Images Entertainment) Martin Winterkorn, the Volkswagen chief executive, shown at the Geneva International Motor Show in March 2015, was known for his obsession with detail and for his temper
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.nytimes.com/2006/03/08/automobiles/08volkswagen.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0. 110 in an interview in March 2006: Ibid. CHAPTER 10: THE CHEAT 112 Martin Winterkorn, not yet a year: “Offensive 2018,” Der Spiegel, Nov. 12, 2007, http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-53621814.html. 112 The cars were clean
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in late 2008. 127 Winterkorn . . . was informed: Ibid. 127 But documents indicate that the decision: Ibid., 24–25. 128 “The steep pace of mobility growth”: Martin Winterkorn, text of closing remarks to Vienna Motor Symposium, April 25, 2008, as reprinted in “Conference Report: 29th International Vienna Motor Symposium,” MTZextra, 31. CHAPTER 11
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/international/business/investing-in-america -volkswagen-rolls-the-dice-on-tennessee-a-595770.html. 149 he traveled seven times to the United States: Declaration of Martin Winterkorn, U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, In re: Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2672, Document 1707-1
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, “The Engineering of Volkswagen’s Aggressive Ambition,” New York Times, Dec. 13, 2015. 156 “It doesn’t clank”: “IAA 2011 Hyundai New Generation i30 and Martin Winterkorn,” YouTube, Sept. 15, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpPNVSQmR5c. 157 “This clever woman has achieved”: Mark Christian Schneider, “Die Piëchs bei der VW
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, p. 36. Also: State of Maryland v. Volkswagen, 43; Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Volkswagen, 34. CHAPTER 15: EXPOSURE 176 reported directly to Winterkorn: Declaration of Martin Winterkorn, filed as an exhibit in Winterkorn’s Motion to Dismiss the Consolidated Securities Class Action Complaint, August 1, 2016. 176 Gottweis was among the first
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/new-york-vw-complaint-7-19.pdf, p. 36. 176 included in the packet: Cover letter from Frank Tuch, head of group quality assurance, to Martin Winterkorn, May 23, 2014, filed as an exhibit in Volkswagen’s Motion to Dismiss the Consolidated Securities Class Action Complaint, August 1, 2016. The report that
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media: David Böcking, “Piëch vs. Winterkorn: Zukunft im Zeichen der Guillotine,” Spiegel Online, April 13, 2015, http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/ferdinand-piech-vs-martin-winterkorn-was-wird-aus-vw-a-1028296.html. 189 his mere appearance sparked speculation: Markus Voss, “Erstaunliches Comeback: Der Alte ist zurück! Wieviel Piëch steckt jetzt
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. 194 Winterkorn later said under oath: Alison Smale and Jack Ewing, “Ex-Chief of V.W., Testifying in Germany, Stands His Ground on Emissions Deception,” Martin Winterkorn testimony to Bundestag Untersuchungsausschuss zur VW-Abgasaffäre (Parliamentary Investigative Committee on the Volkswagen Emissions Affair), January 19, 2017. 194 One of Volkswagen’s in-house
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their teeth”: Ayala interview, October 10, 2016. 199 Volkswagen later maintained: Ibid., 53–59. 200 “In a meeting on 9/3/2015 with”: Memo to Martin Winterkorn from W. Zimmermann, Sept, 4, 2015. CHAPTER 18: EMPIRE 201 Usually the Ballsporthalle: The author attended the event and recorded it. Translations are his own
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. 271 Winterkorn had assured Piëch: “Piëch belastet Winterkorn vor Staatsanwaltschaft,” Der Spiegel, February 3, 2017, http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/volkswagen-ferdinand-piech-belastet-martin-winterkorn-vor-staatsanwaltschaft-a-1133024.html. 271 the Volkswagen supervisory board said it “emphatically repudiates”: Statement by the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG, February 8, 2017
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against Wolfgang Habbel, 45 Porsche 924 production, 38 road testing of diesels, 184 search of Ingolstadt offices, 272–73 as source of VW profit, 189 Martin Winterkorn and, 118 Audi A3, 53, 146, 148, 167 Audi A8, 88, 184 Audi 80, 41 Audi 100, 39, 44 Audi Q7 SUV, 127–28 Audi
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legal settlement, 266 meeting that included discussion of defeat device, 177–78 request for indemnity clause in VW contract, 124 VW defeat device specifications, 124 Martin Winterkorn and, 118 Bratislava, Slovakia, 95 Braun, Wernher von, 17, 28 Brazil, 156, 206, 218, 245 Breton, Leo diesel truck engine emissions test, 72 doubts about
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share of total European emissions, 254 and VW’s use of defeat devices, 178 and VW workforce, 55–59 on “war” with GM, 62–63 Martin Winterkorn and, 110, 118, 119, 186–89, 270, 271 wives and mistresses, 41–42 workers as a source of power, 58–59 Piëch, Gregor, 84–85
Woke, Inc: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam
by Vivek Ramaswamy · 16 Aug 2021 · 344pp · 104,522 words
, with full marks for “codes of conduct, compliance and anti-corruption, as well as innovation management and climate change strategy.”9 Volkswagen Chairman and CEO Martin Winterkorn had spearheaded Volkswagen’s transformation from a middling automaker to the world’s largest in just a few years at the helm. By 2014, Winterkorn
Insane Mode: How Elon Musk's Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil
by Hamish McKenzie · 30 Sep 2017 · 307pp · 90,634 words
fellow board member Stephan Weil, the governor of Lower Saxony state, which had a 20 percent stake in the company. To Huber’s right stood Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen’s sixty-eight-year-old CEO, who had been in the position since 2007. As the biggest crisis in the automaker’s history unfolded
Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century
by Tim Higgins · 2 Aug 2021 · 430pp · 135,418 words
electric powertrain and taken the vehicle to Germany to demonstrate how they could work together, walking through the benefits of lithium-ion cells. Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn took drives around a test track at full speed in the Roadster that they had also brought along. The Toyota deal was announced on a
Carmageddon: How Cars Make Life Worse and What to Do About It
by Daniel Knowles · 27 Mar 2023 · 278pp · 91,332 words
2018, Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, expressed her horror. “These tests on monkeys or even humans cannot be justified ethically in any way,” she said. Martin Winterkorn, VW’s CEO, gave a speech in which he said that “millions of people around the world trust our brands, our cars, and our technologies
Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution
by Beth Gardiner · 18 Apr 2019 · 353pp · 106,704 words
the United States, VW eventually agreed to pay close to $30 billion in penalties and settlements, compensating drivers and recalling and buying back cars. CEO Martin Winterkorn said he hadn’t known of the cheating, but he resigned and was later charged criminally (although he’s unlikely to be extradited). Other high
Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives
by Tim Harford · 3 Oct 2016 · 349pp · 95,972 words
manufacturers in the world, was caught cheating on U.S. emissions tests. Public opinion was shocked. Shares in the German car giant plunged; the boss, Martin Winterkorn, resigned; and Germans worried that the reputation of every manufacturer in the nation might be tarnished by association with VW.25 How was such cheating
This Is Not Normal: The Collapse of Liberal Britain
by William Davies · 28 Sep 2020 · 210pp · 65,833 words
tinkered with emissions controls in their vehicles, so as to dupe regulators in tests, but then pollute liberally the rest of the time. The CEO, Martin Winterkorn, resigned. ‘We didn’t really learn anything from WikiLeaks we didn’t already presume to be true’, the philosopher Slavoj Žižek observed in 2014. ‘But
Content Provider: Selected Short Prose Pieces, 2011–2016
by Stewart Lee · 1 Aug 2016 · 282pp · 89,266 words
was David Cameron, in farm girl’s frock and bonnet, borne aloft in plywood pigsty, fair Chloris, innocent and pleased; and here, a papier mâché Martin Winterkorn, head of Volkswagen, strangling the green earth with his clean hands. And so on, and so on, a multitude of villains and no clear candidate
How Will Capitalism End?
by Wolfgang Streeck · 8 Nov 2016 · 424pp · 115,035 words
rights in the events their associations organize.55 Finally, take a global corporation like Volkswagen (which, incidentally, around 2010 raised the salary of its CEO, Martin Winterkorn, to an, in German terms, hitherto unimaginable €15 million per annum). In 2015 it became apparent that Volkswagen had engaged in a massive pattern of
Are Chief Executives Overpaid?
by Deborah Hargreaves · 29 Nov 2018 · 98pp · 27,201 words
The Internet Is Not the Answer
by Andrew Keen · 5 Jan 2015 · 361pp · 81,068 words
Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism
by Wolfgang Streeck · 1 Jan 2013 · 353pp · 81,436 words