Recommendation for Worldwide Governance
Due to the global implications of some decisions made by Volkswagen, governing boards should strengthen their impact on worldwide automakers by working in conjunction with other countries in enforcing needed global regulations. If the impact of a product is global, then governance leadership of that product should also be at a global scale. Collaboration may never be achieved globally, but major consuming countries working in conjunction to enforce needed regulations, can make the same impact. In the case of the VW emission scandal, several countries are assisting in holding Volkswagen accountable but each country is performing their own investigation and requiring Volkswagen to correct the
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If standards are uniform, it would allow for concentrated research and development of vehicles that would benefit the world. Understanding that not all nations will participate, the most influential and largest consuming nations will be empowered by the benefit of consolidated and uniform rules.
Imposing Worldwide Environmental Penalties
If emission standards and other vehicle operating regulations are globalized, then the penalties implied on car makers should also be globalized. The impact would be immediately greater, making compliance so much more important. Violations, such as the emission deception, do impact the entire world, therefore, penalties should also be at a higher unified level to assist with resolution and re-standardization when needed. A global voice will be much more powerful, moreover, the additional worldwide penalties would not eliminate or reduce each individual countries penalties. Penalties would have to be closely monitored so as not to cripple a company overall.
Recommendations for Consumer Protection
Governing boards must empower consumers with needed tools to make safer business decisions. If tools are given to the consumer to protect their purchases from car makers, consumers would more comfortably recover from product issues and continue purchasing. For some consumers, the impact of the VW deception will cause loss of funds,
The American automotive industry has been under a lot of pressure over recent years due to increased concern for the environment and increased global competition. An environmental scan on the American automotive industry shows that the global competition is a great cause for concern, new technology is providing an edge, emissions and laws regulating them are as tight as ever, and consumer opinion is reflecting concern for this.
Volkswagen is one of the largest automakers in the world and it has a global reputation as a high-quality German auto brand. Social responsibility is included in VW’s corporate culture and it seems that Volkswagen made some advances in Corporate Social Responsibility because the corporation was ranked 11th 2015 in the Global CSR Rep Track 100, which listed companies by reputation (Reputation Institute, 2015).However, the company has been threatened by an emission scandal which broke in September 2015, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) disclosed that Volkswagen had installed defeat devices on diesel cars which were sold in the US. These devices equipped on VW cars cheated regulators in such a way that it could detect
In this essay, I will argue that Ford Motor Company’s business behavior was unethical as demonstrated in the Ford Pinto Case. Ford did not reveal all the facts to consumers about a harmful gas tank design in the Ford Pinto. They tried to justify their decision to sell an unsafe car by using a Cost-Benefit Analysis which determined it was cheaper to sell the cars without changing to a safer gas tank. The price of not fixing the gas tanks is human injuries and fatalities. By choosing not to make the Pinto a safer vehicle Ford placed a price on the head of every consumer. Ford’s primary concern was to maximize profits. Ford had a duty and ethical responsibility to customers to
Recently America and the European countries are saying that the automobile industry is very dangerous for our world, and the likes of china should not produce them as we have created a lot of pollution already. What the world should be currently focusing is reducing the pollution, nor creating more cars.
The Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988, a law that prohibits the import of a daily driver vehicle that is less than 25 years old. Has become an ongoing issue in today’s driving society. Specifically, the law states an imported car less than the manufacturing date of 25 years need to pass certain safety emissions and tests to be brought to U.S.A. “The vehicle must be capable of being brought into compliance with all applicable Federal motor vehicle safety standards.” (102 STAT. 2819). From 1988 to, the present consumers are arguing that this pointless law is taking away their freedom to buy and import vehicles at their own discretion. This could lead the consumers into black market schemes making it a very risky approach towards imported vehicles sales and would hurt the economy in the same process. The Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988 should be removed because of the freedom it strips away from the automotive consumer.
These regulations apply by holding the seller of good and services accountable when they seek a profit by taking advantage of a person’s lack of knowledge. Businesses that provide goods and services must comply with these consumer guarantees; which include the right to safety, with trust that the products
As a multinational corporation, the implication of the scandal determines the fate of numerous stakeholders both internal and external. Internal stakeholders comprise of the board, managers and employees while external stakeholders subsume shareholders, customers and suppliers. The economic, political and social impacts of the dishonest practices would shape the fate of Volkswagen and affect the future prospects of the automotive industry. Common shareholders whilst not involved in the day to day running of the business placed faith and belief in the firm by providing capital had suffered severe economic loss as share prices (get something for stat). Despite the callous deception in advertising the defeat device displayed no signs of disturbing vehicle performance, however, customers of Volkswagen and its subsidiary vehicles suffer from lower resale value. In addition, even though the scandal was global, European consumers were the most affected with diesel cars accounting for 41% of all European cars (Fontaras, 2016). This high percentage in respect to other nations is a result of incentives provided by the European Union for the purchase of diesel vehicles such as subsidies towards the production process resulting in lower premiums compared to petrol counterparts (Vidal, 2015) In additional with sales falling suppliers of Volkswagen would likely lose future contracts or have current contracts downgraded as less parts are required. Thus, this loss of future
Similarly government regulations in the United States and Europe are tightening up, consequently requiring cars to be cleaner and more fuel efficient. As a result, the collaboration with BMW is paramount to getting the most fuel efficient vehicles to the market in a timely manner so that GM can harvest a substantial profit. (3) In addition General Motors is working on the next generation of fuel efficient and gasoline free vehicles to help reduce the impact of the vehicle on the environment, while preserving personal mobility, which further indicates its commitment to innovation. (6)
Car enthusiasts, all around the U.S, have been waiting for a long time to be satisfied with owning the car they have desired from overseas. In fact, the wait has been 25 years. Owning your own car creates a powerful emotion, and the cars we desire have such a long wait before they are imported, unless they receive special permission and authority from our government. Car companies produce tens of thousands of cars for the states, whether import or domestic. The fine line between buying an American foreign product compared to the factory in Japan, is the car it’s self, meaning quality of manufacturing or the efficiency of their emissions.
Legal: Legal action taken by car owners, shareholders and the EPA have the power to fine and sue VW for up to 37, 000.00 dollars per vehicle for breaching environmental standards regarding nitrogen oxide emissions from their vehicles, and a maximum fine of roughly 18 billion dollars may be issued by the EPA (Hotten, 2015). Breaching legal regulations, particularly environmental regulations, set out by government departments will result in poor company reputation as VW will be seen as a significant contributor to environmental issues such as air
The American automotive industry is a massive force, to say the least. The historical impacts of automotive technology and assembly line manufacturing has effected economies around the world and has also created world-wide ecological challenges. Governments, under pressure from environmentalists, have had to realize, create, implement, and constantly refine manufacturing and emission standards. Consumers, who foot the gas bill for vehicles, continue to express their desire for less expensive autos that require less fuel without sacrificing style, comfort, safety, or performance.
In 2014, questions began to arise surrounding the Volkswagen and the emissions that their diesel cars produced. It came to light that the company was violating U.S. environmental regulations by installing software in their cars that was able to sense when emissions were being tested and limit the operations that increase emissions during the test thus producing a lower score. The result of this was that Volkswagen had produced and sold approximately 10,000 vehicles that violated U.S. law. In the early part of 2017, the FBI arrested Oliver Schmidt, a Volkswagen official, in Florida based on his connection to Volkswagens criminal activities. This case illustrates an ever growing issue in the world: international white collar crime. Globalization
With billions of dollars invested and hundreds of thousands of Americans employed (Department of Commerce, n.d.), the automobile industry has a vast influence in the United States. Since the time Henry Ford developed the assembly line production (Statista, n.d.) the industry has grown into a global market with no signs of slowing down. Top car companies are constantly searching for new innovations to set them apart from their competitors. Among those companies is Volkswagen (VW). A company which strides in emissions and fuel efficiency turned, not only to be false, but caused a severe amount of damage (Ewing, 2016).
There is a serious problem facing the world right now. It is air pollution. The number one contributor to this epidemic is automobile emissions. We have all heard of the issues that are involved with air pollution including the depletion of the o-zone layer, the green house effect, and acid rain. The problem has been scoped from every imaginable angle, and now it is time to solve the problem. I propose that each of the ‘Big Three’ (Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler) car manufacturers be required to have 10% of their product line as EV’s By the year 2010. I propose this because it will be the start of cleaner air, EV advancement, and awareness of EV’s and how they work.
The ecological environment necessitates clean, renewable energy sources, which requires automakers to design motors with these new fuel sources in mind. The legal environment imposes stricter regulations on vehicle