Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller says new catalytic converter could fix USA cars

Volkswagen found itself in soup after it was found cheating diesel vehicle emissions tests for which Matthias Mueller apologised.

“Speaking at the Detroit International Auto Show, North America’s largest annual auto show, Volkswagen chief Matthias Mueller said he hopes his meeting Wednesday with EPA head Gina McCarthy will result in a fix to the scandal”. He later added, “We have to apologize for that, and we’ll do our utmost to do things right for the future”.

“We will bring a package together which satisfies our customers first and foremost and then also the regulators”, said Diess.

“We know we deeply disappointed our customers, the responsible government bodies, and the general public here in the U.S”, Muller said.

The company’s executives are meeting regulators to negotiate this process whilst their engineers are working rapidly on technical solutions.

The U.S. Government’s complaint against Volkswagen and various related entities, including vehicle makers Audi and Porsche, was brought under the Clean Air Act, the stated goal of which is to protect human health and the environment by reducing emissions. Volkswagen’s executives went on to pledge to find a solution to the crises they were facing in the region, and put an end to the bad publicity they have continuously been subject to.

Volkswagen Group of America President and CEO Michael Horn said the program will be further extended for the owners of 2009-2016 diesel VW Touareg SUVs.

Müller said that “we [Volkswagen] are not a criminal brand or group” and that there was “no intention” to betray the USA public or regulators.

The second option for Volkswagen could be far more expensive and would involve buying back thousands of cars.

VW has concluded it would be cheaper to repurchase some of the more than 500,000 vehicles than fix them, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. EPA and CARB have been in active discussion with Volkswagen about potential remedies and recalls to address the noncompliance, and those discussions are ongoing.

The request may ease pressure on VW, which has been struggling to comply with US disclosure requests amid strict German privacy rules.

At the reception, Müller also announced that Volkswagen plans to make a new mid-size SUV and would thus invest $900 million in the United States.