As Volkswagen’s emissions data manipulation is brought to light, the true damage to the brand remains to be seen. The scandal will of course damage the carmaker’s reputation, and PVMI Director John Paul MacDuffie points out in Knowledge@Wharton that the damage to public health and the environment will also remain to be seen. With so much focus on air quality and climate change, “to have such a big, prominent automaker [caught] is a pretty big deal,” MacDuffie adds.