I don’t get annoyed anymore by the longer than average interrogation that I face every time I pass through an international airport. Immigration officials would wear a question mark on their faces a decade ago when I told them that I was visiting or transiting through the airport on my way for a car test drive. They’d look like, “Really? Do you guys have cars in your country?”
More recently, of course, we Indians have gotten a bit more popular. I have also resorted to wearing slightly more distracting footwear to make sure the conversation can be steered in favour of making the queries shorter and more pleasant.
But given the average profile and popularity of the new car that was scheduled to drive in some scenic locale of that country, the one common theme has always been practiced envy. “Can I get a job in your media? Do you get to do stuff like this all the time?”
It’s different
So somehow, the lady Swiss immigration official at the counter in Zurich airport seemed to wear an expression that was very different from the usual. The frown on her face deepened and before I could get a fix on what might be wrong with my passport, she said, “Going to Wolfsburg to test drive the Volkswagen Beetle? Not very clean are they?”
I put up a wry smile and said not all of Volkswagen’s cars have been implicated in the emissions scandal and that the company still makes some great cars.
I had read about the wave of concern and downright fear that the VW emissions scandal had stoked in the minds of the German people. Chancellor Merkel’s Government and German corporations have been trying to limit the impact on Brand Germany, by pointing out that the tainted car models from the VW group are only a handful and that the country is still the hallmark of high quality manufacture.
But the scandal is still unravelling and more car models from some of the other VW group brands, including Porsche, have been added to the list of cars that have the cheat code software embedded in them.
Naturally, the clean up and recovery for the VW brand is going to be a long drawn affair. It is never easy to clear the air after it has been polluted, both literally and metaphorically. Even as VW continues to cooperate with the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and prepares, rather braces, itself to face the consequences of its indiscretion, I was heading to the conglomerate’s headquarters to test drive the new Beetle — the car that started the automotive revolution in Germany. The Beetle, for years, was the very personification of the Volkswagen brand; the people’s car that became a design icon for decades to come.
At Ground Zero
So, early last week, I was driving down the autobahn (freeway), heading into Motown and I was curious to see if the scandal had already left its scar on Wolfsburg and its residents.
The town and its neighbouring villages have a population of about 120,000 people and more than 55,000 of them are Volkswagen’s employees. There is no mistaking Wolfsburg to be anything other than an industrial town. The resident population in the centre of town swells during the day and plummets post sunset. The only tall structures are the smoke stacks and the two automated, multi-level parking towers in the Autostadt that house the new VW cars due for delivery straight out of the plant.
You might recall the 20-storeyed parking towers that were featured in the Hollywood movie Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol — they were inspired by the towers in the Autostadt. This is Volkswagen’s showcase theme park with a museum and displays of other group brand cars within this complex next to the plant. Autostadt literally means ‘Car city’ in German and like VW’s tagline “Das Auto” (the car), the brand is literally omnipresent in this town.
Evident change
Driving into the town just past peak rush hour, I was pleasantly greeted by bumper-to-bumper traffic; thankfully on the other side of the highway. So, yes, it seemed like VW employees were still producing ‘The Car’.
The Autostadt’s parking towers with the automated loading mechanism for the 600 cars were apparently seeing cars being delivered or being replaced fully every 24 hours. And the three Michelin-star rated restaurants in Autostadt were still busy serving a stream of guests.
There are parts of Wolfsburg and even some of the bare-brick finished buildings of the VW plant that seem a bit grim and straight out of a world war movie. Even if I thought that there was a palpable sense of fear, the locals of Wolfsburg were not giving any of that feeling away.
Yes, they were concerned but they were also sure that the company would climb out of it. VW officials I spoke with admitted it was the biggest crisis in the company’s history and that to claim it would come out of it unscathed would be wishful thinking. The general consensus was also that this emissions scandal and its impact would change the way the company works forever, and in ways that would be unprecedented in its 78-year history.
There was also widespread opinion that internally, VW itself is still struggling to understand and quantify what the cheat code software would do to the tainted cars’ emissions in the real world. While investigations are still being conducted in the US and in Germany, workers at the Autostadt are diligently putting up banners, serial lights and other decorations for the upcoming Christmas holiday season.
As I checked out of my hotel room, the first snow of the season was starting to waft down, creating a thin blanket of white over Wolfsburg and its neighbourhood. The mood is sombre and there is fear lurking in the minds of Wolfsburg’s residents, but more importantly, there is also a strong sense of Hope.