Officials investigating Volkswagen's alleged cheating of emissions tests in the United States have discovered a PowerPoint presentation created by the automaker in 2006 that detailed how it was able to carry out the deception.
According to a report by the New York Times, the PowerPoint presentation's existence was confirmed by two individuals who have seen the document.
Investigators believe the presentation was drafted by one of Volkswagen's top executives in response to the company's realization that it might not be able to meet the U.S. government's high standards for diesel emissions without easily using up its filtering equipment.
Instead of adding cleaner systems to Volkswagen's vehicles that would have driven sticker prices to increase, the document outlined how the company could take advantage of embedded software that was capable of adjusting engine parameters whenever a vehicle is set to undergo an emissions test. This would effectively make the vehicle seem cleaner that it actually was.
In 2015, Volkswagen admitted to adding the emissions-cheating software to 11 million of its vehicles worldwide. The recent discovery of the PowerPoint presentation provides the most direct link to date of the German automaker's complicity in the deception.
If proven accurate, the document could solidify the belief that cheating was very much systematic and widely accepted within Volkswagen, and that it was not committed by just a group of untrustworthy engineers.
Volkswagen's missteps in handling its emissions problems have already cost the automaker billions of dollars in fines on top of being placed under criminal investigation.
Court documents revealed that the company continued to install the alleged cheating software in its vehicles despite having been questioned by regulators in 2014. Volkswagen also made the situation worse by undervaluing the potential fines as well as the risks to its own reputation.
On April 22, the company said that it has set aside about $18.2 billion in order to cover the costs of legal claims, recalls and fines. It has also agreed in principle to provide "substantial compensation" to consumers in the United States who bought vehicles affected by the cheating software.
