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WOLFSBURG, Germany — Volkswagen said on Thursday that its emissions cheating scandal began in 2005 with a decision to heavily promote diesel engines in the United States and a realization that those engines could not meet clean air standards. What followed was a textbook example of what happens when ambition combines with weak internal controls and ethical standards, the company acknowledged as it presented a preliminary report of its investigation into the origins of the scandal.
Some employees, the company found, chose to cheat on emissions tests rather than to curtail Volkswagen’s American campaign. “There was a tolerance for breaking the rules,” Hans-Dieter Pötsch, the chairman of Volkswagen’s supervisory board, said here on Thursday, at his first lengthy news conference since the emissions cheating came to light in September. “That is the hardest thing to accept,” he added.
A Volkswagen assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany. Matthias Müller, the automaker's chief executive, will hold a news conference on Thursday.Volkswagen Terms One Emissions Problem Smaller Than Expected DEC. 9,2015. A Portable Emissions Measurement System, which looks at emissions in real driving conditions, testing a car.VW Argued for Easing New E.U. Tests on EmissionsDEC. 1, 2015 Workers leaving a Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, last month.Volkswagen, Offering Amnesty, Asks Workers to Come Forward on Emissions Cheating NOV. 12, 2015
At the news conference, which also included Matthias Müller, the Volkswagen chief executive, the company gave its most detailed explanation yet of what had led to the scandal. Mr. Pötsch said it was “the biggest test” in Volkswagen’s history.