Volkswagen executive’s ‘sincere apology’ falls flat on Capitol Hill

“The American people, the EPA and their counterparts around the world have been defrauded by Volkswagen”.

On Thursday, German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that Volkswagen’s manipulation software was also switched on during European emission tests, citing a company spokesman.

The EPA has also continued its investigation into Volkswagen’s action, working closely with the California Air Resources Board and the U.S. Department of Justice, said Christopher Grundler, director of EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality at the hearing.

The head of Volkswagen’s USA operations learned that his company’s cars might not be in compliance with federal standards in the spring of 2014, he said Thursday. “We will find remedies for our customers, and we will work to ensure that this will never happen again”.

“I want to assure all customers that the affected cars are technically safe and the necessary measures will be undertaken at no cost to them”, said John White, managing director of VW Australia.

“These events are deeply troubling”, Horn planned to say, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.

“I didn’t have any reason to expect our vehicles included such a device” before that time, said Horn before the House Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

In the testimony, in which Horn offers “a honest apology for Volkswagen’s use of a program that served to defeat” emissions tests, the executive said, “We have withdrawn the application for certification of our model year 2016 vehicles”.

The German automaker admitted last month that it installed on-board computer software created to cheat on government emissions tests in almost 500,000 of its four-cylinder “clean diesel” cars starting with the 2009 model year.

He said there was never a boardroom discussion about cheating emissions testing.

Volkswagen has suspended four workers and said a recall of cars with the suspect software could start in Germany in January. No date has been set for those vehicles to begin receiving remedies.

It revealed that there was a large discrepancy between Volkswagens’ stated emissions and the actual emissions from the vehicles.

Amid several prolonged and pointed questions, Horn asked for patience from Congress as his company continues to conduct an internal investigation into the software impacting an estimated 480,000 cars in the United States.