Volkswagen paid to have monkeys inhale exhaust fumes to prove that its diesel emissions were harmless, according to a documentary currently available on Netflix. The automaker has just suspended one of its top executives.
The experiment was conducted as part of an unpublished 2014 test intended to compare Volkswagen’s then heralded “clean diesel” TDI emissions with those of an older heavy-duty diesel pickup truck. Alex Gibney’s Dirty Money series, which first aired on Netflix last Friday, described the test as initially intended to expose a person pedaling an exercise bike to diesel fumes. The researchers intended to “poke and prod that person later to determine what type of health effects they would see from this person being gassed,” said Michael Melkersen, a Virginia lawyer suing VW, in the documentary. Thomas Steg, VW’s head of external relations and sustainability, is taking “full responsibility” for the experiment and VW will be “drawing all the necessary consequences,” according to a statement attributed to VW Group CEO Matthias Müller. The proposed human test subject was abandoned in favor of 10 monkeys, according to documentary filmmaker Gibney. They were placed in airtight chambers and shown cartoons as they breathed fumes from a 2013 VW Beetle TDI running on a dynamometer. The comparison vehicle was an older diesel Ford F-series truck. Volkswagen indirectly paid for the study, conducte...