Small group started work on cheat in ’05: VW

Volkswagen found it “impossible” to make its four-cylinder TDI engines meet USA nitrogen-oxide (NOx) laws in the US, so engineers chose to create software that altered how the auto ran in emissions-test labs compared to in the real world.

USA authorities had been alerted to VW’s cheating practices by a non-profit group called the International Council on Clean Transportation.

“We are not talking about a one-off mistake, but a whole chain of mistakes that was not interrupted at any point along the time line”, he told reporters at Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.

He said there are so far no indications that board members were directly involved, but said the company’s probe would be all encompassing: ‘This is not only about direct but overall responsibility’.

Mueller, who has not been to the United States since becoming chief executive after the scandal broke, said he would start a visit to the country after the Detroit motor show in January.

“We are happy to have those brands, and there are no plans to sell any one of them”, the CEO said.

CEO Mueller, brought in to resolve the crisis, said VW was “currently doing everything it can to limit the effect the current situation has on its business performance”. “I will look ahead optimistically and confidently”. For example, future software for engine control devices will be developed strictly in accordance with the “4-eyes principle”.

Details of the new structure would be drawn up in the first quarter of next year and it would be in place across the group by early 2017. Volkswagen said it would correct those procedures. “Although the current situation is serious, this company will not be broken by it”, he said. He left open the option of making adjustments within Volkswagen’s sprawling portfolio of 300 model variants.

The automaker has decided that in the future, emissions tests will be evaluated externally and independently.

United Kingdom sales were down by 20 per cent in November according to SMMT data revealed earlier this week, and U.S. sales fell by nearly 25 per cent in the same month.

Volkswagen has already set aside 6.7 billion euros to cover the cost of recalls, but says it can’t yet estimate the scale of fines, penalties and compensation.

The reason was that the technology for the fixes was not available when the cars were built, and the problem was not known at the time. The company got some welcome relief on December 9 when it all but eliminated one front in the pollution scandal. Volkswagen said Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015 that a problem with carbon dioxide emissions is far smaller than initially suspected, with further checks finding “slight discrepancies” in only a few models and no evidence of illegal changes to fuel consumption and emissions figures.

As he resigned, former Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn declared he did not have any information about the decision to equip millions of cars with cheating devices.