VW CEO Michael Horn went on the record to admit that his company screwed up.
His words, not mine. Earlier today (Sept. 21, 2015) VW of North America President and CEO Michael Horn decided to address the media head on and called an audible during the launch of their 2016 VW Passat. To get ahead of this monumental user error that has caused the company tons of bad PR, according to reports coming in over social media, Volkswagen is facing this recall head on. To begin his talk he simply stated how, “”Our company was dishonest. In my German words, we totally screwed up.” He then reiterated how the Volkswagen Passat, “was a car built in America by Americans for Americans.” Additionally, ” This company will do everything it can to make things right.” Check out the tweets coming in as his apology speech slowly hits the rest of the web. We’re not entirely sure people wanted to hear about the Passat anyways.
Michael Horn gets right to it: "Our company was dishonest. In my German words, we totally screwed up." #vw #tdi pic.twitter.com/7RTgBBPgOy
— Automobile Magazine (@automobilemag) September 22, 2015
.@vw of America ceo Michael Horn starts by saying "we screwed up," regarding TDI news. #newpassat pic.twitter.com/zqs83V7PeT
— Car and Driver (@CARandDRIVER) September 22, 2015
Impressed with @VW's Michael Horn facing the diesel recall head on at the #NewPassat event pic.twitter.com/expjY1Utte
— Fadra Nally (@allthingsfadra) September 22, 2015
"Let's be clear: Our company was dishonest." Michael Horn, U.S.-Chef von VW, in New York. pic.twitter.com/FkhIt6boYf
— Roland Lindner (@RolLindner) September 22, 2015
Volkswagen was caught by CARB and the EPA earlier this week for implementing a piece of software in their VW Jetta, Passat, Beetle, Golf and Audi A3’s equipped with diesel engines that only turned on their emissions systems aimed at reducing Nox during EPA testing (or any testing for that matter.) In everyday driving the system was turned off. VW is facing a recall of epic proportions with close to half a million vehicles being affected and a maximum fine of $18 billion if every car is fined the maximum amount of $35,000. For the time being VW has halted all sales of their TDI equipped cars and instructions for a recall are in order.
You can read further into what VW did with our story below.
Next: How Volkswagen Cheated On The Diesel EPA Test And Got Caught