A shocking exposé of Volkswagens fraud by theNew York Timesreporter who covered the scandal.
Updated with a New Afterword by the Author.
When news of Volkswagens clean diesel fraud first broke in September 2015, it sent shockwaves around the world. Overnight, the company long associated with quality, reliability and trust became a universal symbol of greed and deception. Consumers were outraged, investors panicked, the company embarrassed and facing bankruptcy.
As lawsuits and criminal investigations piled up, by August 2016 VW had settled with American regulators and car-owners for $15 billion, with additional fines and claims still looming.
InFaster, Higher, Farther, Jack Ewing rips the lid off the scandal. He describes VWs rise from the peoples car during the Nazi era to one of Germanys most prestigious and important global brands, touted for being green. He paints vivid portraits of Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piëch and chief executive Martin Winterkorn, arguing that their unremitting ambition drove employees, working feverishly in pursuit of impossible sales targets, to illegal methods.
With unprecedented access to key players and a ringside seat during the course of the legal proceedings,Faster, Higher, Fartherreveals how the succeed-at-all-costs culture prevalent in modern boardrooms led to one of corporate historys farthest-reaching cases of fraudwith potentially devastating consequences.
As the future of one of the worlds biggest companies remains uncertain, this is the extraordinary story of Volkswagens downfall.
Jack Ewing has been working as a journalist in Germany since 1994, including more than a decade as a correspondent atBusinessWeekmagazine. He joined theNew York Timesin January 2010 as their European economics correspondent, a beat that includes the car industry. He is based in Frankfurt.
