Audi Reportedly Has A Software Fix For 3.0 V6 Diesel Engines

Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal widened Friday as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that clandestine software allowing six-cylinder Volkswagen diesel engines to cheat on pollution tests is on more models than originally thought. But they did halt sales of all V6 diesels in the USA.

Only the first one is viewed as a “defeat device”. Which sounds like they’re splitting hairs.

Earlier on Friday, the supervisory board of VW, Europe’s biggest auto manufacturer, said it would cap spending on property, plant and equipment at around 12 billion euros ($12.8 billion) next year, down about 8 percent on its previous plan of around 13 billion euros.

VOLKSWAGEN has conceded that its 3.0-litre diesel engines are implicated in the emissions scandal – with the latest revelation potentially affecting a further 85,000 vehicles globally. That will now be done with the updated software and the documentation, the company said in a statement. In a technical meeting between company officials, EPA and the California regulators the discussion revolved around three devices on the 3.0-liter engines that should have been reported as auxiliary emissions control devices, Ward said.

Volkswagen has admitted fitting software to their 3.0 litre V6 diesel engines that acts as a defeat device, but claim it’s legal in the United Kingdom and Europe.

The other interesting bit of information is that Audi has made it very clear that it is responsible for this part of the Dieselgate scandal, not Volkswagen Passenger Cars.

Audi confirmed Monday that the three brands were affected and that it would cost “in the mid-double-digit millions of euros” to provide a remedy that would be approved by U.S. authorities.

German automotive regulator KBA has approved a software update for 2.0-litre diesel motors and agreed in principle to a plan for 1.6-litre engines, CEO Matthias Müller told about 1,000 company executives this week in Wolfsburg, Germany. This engine powers the Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5, an Q7 as well as the Volkswagen Touareg and the Porsche Cayenne.

“Our assumption that substantive changes to the motor would be necessary have not come true”, Mueller said in the speech. One of these devices-the software for controlling the temperature in the exhaust-gas cleaning system-could be considered a… Audi remained silent. Only Porsche seemed contrite, issuing a brief statement that said: “We are surprised to learn this information”.