One after another today, representatives of the House Energy panel's subcommittee on oversight and investigations described how much they loved the VWs they had driven as teens and how they had revered Volkswagen AG as a great automaker before slamming the company for having betrayed their trust with its rampant emissions test-cheating.
"VW is the Lance Armstrong of the industry," said Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont at a hearing on "dieselgate," reading from a constituent's letter, referring to the cycling champion who was unmasked as a cheat.
Volkswagen's U.S. chief executive Michael Horn told them that he and other executives learned in April 2014 of a worrying discrepancy in diesel engine emissions measured in various tests, that the company was going to double-check. In December, they learned the full extent of the cheating scandal.
"This was a couple of software engineers who put this in for whatever reason," theorized Horn.
But one representative, Chris Collins from NY, pressed him, saying a technical solution to stringent U.S. emissions rules would be a big achievement that would interest many higher-ups. Besides, VW had used software to cheat in the U.S. before, in the 1970s.
There wasn't the sense of drama that characterized the recall hearings of
VW's
