Audi to revise the software fitted on 3.0-litre engines

The bad news continues for Volkswagen as German prosecutors are investigating the company for tax evasion.

The “defeat” systems in millions of VW Group diesel engines were programmed to artificially reduce nitrogen-oxide and carbon-dioxide output when the vehicles were undergoing a government certification test.

Braunschweig prosecutor Birgit Seel told The Associated Press that the investigation was focused on five Volkswagen employees but would not release their names.

The 2.0-liter engines in Germany will get a software update, while the 1.6-liter TDI four-cylinders will receive not only a software update but a new grille and cartridge for their air-filter system. The costs and complexity of the fixes, which apply to more than 90 per cent of the affected vehicles in Europe, are “manageable”, he said in excerpts of the speech obtained by Bloomberg.

In addition, VW Group announced that the EPA and the California Air Resources Board have allowed the company to revise the software in 85,000 larger 3.0-liter, TDI-engined cars.

Audi America has already halted sales of the A6 Quattro, the A7 Quattro as well as the A8, A8L and Q5 models in the USA, while Porsche has stopped selling the 2015 Cayenne models fitted with 3.0 V6 TDI engines.

Meanwhile, Audi, whose cars are manufactured by VW, said Monday that the company is also close to winning the approval of regulators in the United States to resubmit its emissions software for examination. “It will take several months before there are conclusive findings”. Audi estimates installing the new software could reach into the “mid-double-digit millions of euros”.

It’s been more than two months since news of Volkswagen’s emissions-test cheating software first began to make headlines, and we still have no concrete details about how the company plans to fix more than 11 million vehicles affected by the Dieselgate scandal. The owners of the affected vehicles, however, would have paid lower taxes in Germany compared to what they should have paid, as vehicles that cause more pollution cause their owners to be charged with higher taxes. The Audi 3.0-liter engines were developed by Audi and are used in certain Audi and Porsche vehicles, as well as the VW Toureg.

Volkswagen on Wednesday revealed fixes for the European diesel cars involved in its emissions scandal, saying it would require a massive recall lasting all of 2016.

We have to wonder how many other cars have been cheating these tests, especially as these cars emissions were said to have fallen over the past few years, yet Co2 levels are still climbing in the rush hour in certain cities, such as London?