VW CEO was told about emissions crisis a year before admitting to cheat scandal; Guardian, 3/2/16

Rupert Neate, Guardian; VW CEO was told about emissions crisis a year before admitting to cheat scandal:

"Volkswagen’s chief executive was told about the company’s illegal emissions crisis more than a year before it admitted it was systematically cheating on US regulators tests.

The German company admitted on Wednesday that its former CEO Martin Winterkorn was, in May 2014, sent a memo detailing how some VW cars were producing up to 35 times more nitrogen oxide emissions than allowed.

In the memo Winterkorn was told about an independent study that found VW cars were producing very high emissions in real life, but very low emissions under strict test conditions.

Up until now the company has said Winterkorn – who resigned after the scandal broke in September 2015 – was unaware of the issue, which was caused by an illegal “defeat device” software VW installed in US cars specifically to trick US regulators."