大眾正竭盡全力在自定期限前就“排放門”做出解釋，此事的源頭可能比意料中更為久遠。

德國《商報》本周二報道，早在1999年環保標準收緊之際，大眾旗下奧迪部門的工程師們就開始考慮利用非法軟件來掩蓋實際排放水平，比起大眾真正決定使用這款軟件要早得多。

大眾一直堅持說“排放門”最早發生在位于德國沃爾夫斯堡的大眾核心品牌，從報道來看該公司的說法很有問題。這條消息也讓外界更加懷疑已經下課的大眾首席執行官馬丁?文德恩有共謀嫌疑，因為當時他正擔任奧迪部門的負責人。文德恩稱自己對非法軟件一無所知；對于2014年內部調查員提出的相關警示信息，他也視而不見，亦或未曾察覺。

這條消息也是發酵了七個月的“排放門”事件中兩次轉折之一。另據彭博報道，4月28日大眾將披露去年第四季度以及全年業績，屆時該公司可能還是沒法把丑聞解釋清楚。去年9月，大眾聘請律師事務所Jones Day對“排放門”展開內部調查，目前事務所的調查人員仍在努力整理去年收集的大量信息。

部分問題似乎在于，20名接受調查的大眾發動機開發部門人員里，至少有好幾個人都在用暗語掩飾行為（要知道，新任CEO馬提亞斯?穆勒今年初曾表示，大眾認為自己并沒有犯任何錯誤）。暗語中最重要的一個是“音響軟件”，代指大眾在自家汽車上安裝的一套軟件，用途是辨別車輛是在監管部門的實驗室里測試，還是在普通道路上行駛。如果在實驗室里，車輛的發動機功率就會保持在美國環保局和加州空氣資源委員會設定的標準以下；但如果在路上，車輛就會進入性能更強且更耗油的模式，當然最關鍵的是，空氣污染更嚴重。

大眾正面臨多個最終期限。該公司第二大股東，下薩克森州政府已經表示，希望大眾在4月底前做出合理解釋。只是如果大眾未能做到這一點，還不清楚州政府會怎樣懲罰本州最大的納稅人和用人單位。更重要的是，大眾與美國環保局以及加州空氣資源委員會的談判將于本周五結束，三方的目標是想辦法維修美國的涉事車輛。如若不然，大眾就得全額賠償相關買家和經銷商因失去轉售價值而蒙受的損失。

同樣是在本周五，大眾監事會必須就高管的2015年獎金做一些決定。這應該是一場有意思的討論，原因是一半監事都是工會代表，他們越來越擔心“排放門”會引發裁員。另外，大眾靠作假提高柴油車在美國市場競爭力時，擔任首席財務官的正是如今的監事會主席漢斯?迪特?珀奇。

下薩克森州政府以及大眾普通股東聯合會正在向公司高層施壓，希望他們徹底放棄去年的獎金，畢竟去年大眾損失了數十億美元，股東手中的股票市值也縮水了幾十億美元。但大眾擔心不發獎金會導致個別管理層成員起訴，特別是能理直氣壯宣稱跟“排放門”事件沒關系的高管。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

Volkswagen is struggling to meet its own self-imposed deadline for explaining its emissions scandal—which may have roots that go farther back than previously thought.

The newspaper Handelsblatt reported Tuesday that engineers at VW’s Audi division had considered using illegal software to mask emissions levels in the event of environmental standards being tightened as early as 1999—well before VW actually decided to use it.

The report contradicts the company’s long-held line that the problem originated at its core VW brand in Wolfsburg. It also increases suspicions about the complicity of the now-departed CEO Martin Winterkorn, who was head of Audi at the time. Winterkorn, who denies having any knowledge of the illegal software, either ignored or failed to spot warning messages about the scale of the problem from internal investigators in 2014.

That revelation is one of two fresh twists in a scandal that’s already in its seventh month. According to a report by Bloomberg, VW may not be able to give a full account of the scandal when it publishes its fourth-quarter and full-year accounts on April 28. Investigators at law firm Jones Day, which VW asked to perform an internal investigation into the affair back in September, are struggling to wade through the wealth of data they gathered last year.

Part of the problem, it seems, is that at least some of the 20 engine development employees on whom the investigation is focusing used code words to cover their tracks. (Remember: CEO Matthias Müller suggested earlier this year that the company didn’t think it had done anything wrong). Chief among these was the term “acoustic software” to refer to the package of code that VW installed in the cars to detect whether the car was being tested by regulators in the lab, or being run on the open road. In the former case, the engines ran just within the limits prescribed by the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resource Board, but in the latter, they switched into a higher-performance, more fuel-hungry and—crucially—dirtier mode of operation.

The deadlines are coming thick and fast at VW now. Its second-largest shareholder, the state of Lower Saxony, has said it wants proper answers by the end of April, although it isn’t clear quite how it intends to sanction the largest taxpayer and employer in the state if it fails. More importantly, it has until Friday to negotiate a solution for fixing its U.S. cars with the EPA and CARB, or else face having to compensate buyers and dealers in full for their complete loss of resale value.

Also on Friday, the supervisory board has to come to some kind of decision on bonuses for the management for 2015, which should be an interesting discussion, given that half of the board is made up representatives of labor unions who are increasingly afraid of job cuts in the wake of the scandal, and that the body is chaired by Hans Dieter P?tsch, the man who was chief financial officer during the period when VW was cutting corners to make its diesels competitive in the U.S.

Both Lower Saxony and the association of VW’s free shareholders are pressing for management to accept no bonus at all for last year, reflecting the multi-billion loss it will take and the billions of dollars of shareholder value destroyed. Yet the company fears lawsuits from individual management board members if they aren’t given a bonus, especially those who can claim that they weren’t directly involved in the conspiracy.