Here is a rough translation of article to English:
VW has sold luxury campers with high pollutant levels in the interior. Instead of a recall, VW recommended that buyers stop in case of "unwell" and go out into the fresh air.
Volkswagen promised improvement after the exhaust gas scandal. Now an internal audit report, which is available to ZDF, documents that Volkswagen has apparently tried to hide another misstep. VW had detected very high pollutant levels in new vehicles and did not inform its customers about these pollutants.
It's about the luxury camper "Grand California", manufactured by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. A "mobile home" with "comfort", according to the manufacturer's promise.
Emission measurements in Q3/2021 have shown that guideline values for partly carcinogenic substances in the interior of produced Grand California are exceeded.
The plastic roof of the vehicle did not meet VW's own quality criteria in laboratory measurements in 2018, i.e. before the start of production, the internal examiners found. But the subsidiary VW Nutzfahrzeuge wanted to bring its show camper to the market in time for the 2019 season - despite high pollutant values. "Cost and time pressure" note the examiners as the reason.
After camper use: VW customers report discomfort
But then customers contacted VW, reported discomfort and stench in the vehicle.
We then slept one night in the vehicle and the next morning we both had headaches and burning eyes.
When Sven Warrelmann drilled at his VW dealer whether there was a pollutant problem, he was assured that nothing was known, according to Warrelmann.
VW is "not only since yesterday" in trouble, according to Frank Bethmann. Despite individual success reports, shareholders are "not satisfied with the overall development at Volkswagen".
The Lotter couple from Cologne struggled with "violent headaches" in their new "Grand California":
We also went for a ride there with the grandchildren. They were green in the face after half an hour. And they were sick of spit.
Norbert Lotter, VW customer
VW tests feared "health hazard"
The fumes in the vehicle come from the glass fibre plastic roof, write the VW testers in the confidential inspection report. This "steams different substances into the vehicle interior over a certain period of time".
Volkswagen then determined in 2021 how high the pollutant pollution is in the interior of the new vehicle. The audit report documents very high benzene, styrene, and formaldehyde values, which are significantly higher than the guideline values of the Federal Environment Agency.
According to the official information, if these values are exceeded, "a health risk to the occupants can be assumed with sufficient probability," the VW testers fear.
I would not sell the vehicle with these values. These are simply too high values. They exceed the guidelines and are therefore not roadworthy from my point of view.
Dr. Norbert Weis, Bremen Environmental Institute
Norbert Weis from the Bremen Environmental Institute has already examined many interiors for harmful substances. Such high values, as documented by VW itself, he would no longer find indoors, which is extraordinary.
VW talks about "volatile substances"
Volkswagen itself sees no health risk for its customers and explains at ZDF's request:
Since they are volatile substances from plastics, their concentration is steadily decreasing.
VW Commercial Vehicles on ZDF request
Volkswagen attaches importance to the fact that there are no limit values for the interior of vehicles.
Expert: VW should have informed customers
Legal limit values are not violated here, confirms Norbert Weis from the Bremen Environmental Institute, because there are almost no legal limit values for interiors. However, there are so-called "danger values" of the state Federal Environment Agency.
"They are treated purely legally by the courts and experts as limit values," says Weis. The pollutant values documented by VW are far above these "danger values". The carcinogenic benzene by 35 times, and the neurotoxic styrene by 15 times.
Volkswagen would have had to inform customers about the massive exceeding of the danger values, would have had to offer them to take back the vehicle, cover all costs and, above all, would have had to start a product recall.
Environmental lawyer Prof. Martin Führ, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences
Such high pollutants in the car is a violation of the Product Safety Act, says Prof. Martin Führ, environmental lawyer and expert in chemicals law. A vehicle with such high pollutant values is not a safe product, VW should therefore have launched a recall.
Volkswagen advises fresh air in case of discomfort
Volkswagen sees it differently because there was no health risk. The roof of all newly produced "Grand California" from spring 2022 was sealed with an additional layer of paint from the inside to contain emissions.
Instead of a recall, Volkswagen sent all buyers of the "Grand California" produced until spring 2022 a supplementary "user notice". In it, VW advises its customers to stop in case of discomfort and to go to the fresh air.
Customer: "I feel deliberately deceived by Volkswagen"
"I could have screamed," says Grand California owner Angelika Lotter. "That's outrageous!"
At the invitation of the ZDF, she had her VW luxury camper examined by the Bremen Environmental Institute whether there are still dangerous pollutants in the indoor air four and a half years after purchase. The result: The benzene value is only slightly increased, the values for benzaldehyde and styrene go beyond the desired level, according to the expert report. But the "danger values" are no longer exceeded.
Angelika Lotter and her husband are now somewhat reassured, but do not want to leave the matter alone. "I feel deliberately deceived by Volkswagen," says Norbert Lotter.
www.zdfheute.de
