The use by VW of clandestine technology to keep on the road cars that are much more polluting than they should be – with the knock-on effect of increased air pollution and more premature deaths – has without doubt sent the German company to the bottom of the automotive corporate ethics pile. In test conditions, the software was able to artificially reduce NOx output, which in normal driving exceeds legal limits. VW was caught using a secret “defeat device” in the form of software installed in some diesel models, which detected when cars were being put through tests to establish their emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx). The cheating by Germany’s Volkswagen on pollutant tests in the US has thrown the issue into sharp relief. “We’re getting close in some of the major cities to it becoming unsustainable,” de Vleeschauwer says. Congestion and pollutants from vehicle exhausts are a major cause. The World Health Organisation said in January that research showed that the “public health emergency” caused by air pollution in cities had become “dramatic”, with 3.3m premature deaths per year worldwide. The industry’s sustainability challenge is made more difficult because the growing world population is increasingly living in cities. The greater the success of the industry in selling new cars, the more pressing these problems become in terms of the overall impact from emissions, congestion, harm to ecosystems and noise. The main issue for the industry is that although consumers want the mobility that cars offer, cars remain highly polluting, resource-intensive and damaging to quality of life. How each company responds will define its prospects in the years ahead. Car manufacturers face an increasingly urgent sustainability challenge. However, resisting the forces of change does not make them go away. Peter Wells, a professor of business and sustainability at Cardiff University, says the car industry “remains highly conservative” and is “an incredibly powerful lobby”. For example, manufacturers have pushed back against tighter environmental standards. It can also engender complacency and resistance to change. The big car brands “are of national importance for economies and governments,” says Tom de Vleeschauwer, director of long term planning and sustainability at analysts IHS.īut power can of course corrupt. During the same period, 1.6m new cars were registered in Germany, giving a net export figure of 1.4 million – more than the total production of any other country apart from China, Japan, the United States, South Korea and India. Germany, for example, in the second quarter of 2015, produced almost 3m passenger cars. In the main producing countries, car companies are leviathans with massive power on which whole ecosystems of suppliers and workers depend. Figures from the International Organisation of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers show that new passenger car registrations worldwide rose from about 45m in 2005 to 65m in 2014, with only a relatively small downward blip in the economic crisis years of 20. The industry’s success is shown by steadily rising global sales. Modern society is, after all, built on the car. They offer an aspirational product that almost everyone wants. The big car companies are in an enviable position. Some of the huge manufacturers are responding much more effectively than others Car companies are at a junction, with an urgent need to address the pollution their vehicles cause, especially in cities.
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