Germany Presses VW to Clean up over Scandal

The disclosure came after VW itself instituted a program of retesting cars for emissions, a move taken as part of an internal investigation by the company following the revelations of emissions-cheating software in 2.0-liter diesel engines in late September of this year. The cars have 1.8-liter and 2-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engines.

The Commission has enforcement powers to ensure that manufacturers respect their obligations in terms of carbon dioxide emissions, including the possibility of imposing fines.

The VW Group has halted sales of Porsche, Audi and VW cars in the U.S. fitted with the 3.0 litre diesel engine after the EPA claimed they contained a defeat device.

Germany has ordered a probe into new allegations that the country’s largest automaker Volkswagen had not only manipulated the emissions test results of over 11 million diesel cars sold around the world, but also cheated on the carbon dioxide emissions in 98,000 petrol cars in Europe.

Volkswagen disclosed this after it conducted its own emission tests.

In an included statement, Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller noted that the admission of these subsequent engine investigations is “a painful process, but it is our only alternative”. Audi and Volkswagen apparently followed suit, telling dealers to hold models that are now the subject of EPA scrutiny, according to Automotive News (subscription required). Up until now, the scandal had only involved diesel engines. While the namesake brand of passenger vehicles, which contributes approximately 60% of the net volume sales, has been dragging down the overall profitability of the group as its margins remain under 3%, premium brands such as Audi and Porsche lift the overall margins.

Porsche Cars North America issued a stop-sale Tuesday evening: “Porsche Cars North America, Inc. today decided, in view of the unexpected U.S. EPA notice received yesterday, to voluntarily discontinue sales of model year 2014 through 2016 Porsche Cayenne Diesel vehicles until further notice”.

The affected cars include about 10,000 that have been sold as well as an unknown number of 2016 cars that have not been sold.

The scandal is hurting the finances of both VW and its parent holding company Porsche SE.

As noted previously, though the affected diesel vehicles do offend EPA regulations, the vehicles remain safe to drive.

The company said Tuesday that the new finding could add at least 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) to the 6.7 billion euros already set aside to handle the crisis.