As VW Prepares For Diesel Emissions Recall, CEO Says Cost Cutting And

The device could recognize whether a vehicle was being operated in a test laboratory or on the road and emit different levels of pollutants accordingly.

In written testimony submitted to a congressional oversight panel a day ahead of Thursday’s hearing, President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America Michael Horn said: “In the spring of 2014…”

Michael Horn was giving evidence in Washington to the House committee on energy and commerce TEAm – Horn speech on Business Scritps or http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF02/20151008/104046/HHRG-114-IF02-Wstate-HornM-20151008.pdf.

Volkswagen, embroiled in an expanding scandal over its intentional cheating of Environmental Protection Agency emission standards with a so-called defeat device, has at least temporarily abandoned plans to include diesel models in its 2016 lineup, a media report said.

Turning to another matter, Horn said Volkswagen does not yet have an approved recall plan for cars that have the defeat device, and that any fix for customers could take “one or two years” to carry out.

Volkswagen has admitted that as many as 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide may have been fitted with software that allowed the cars to run much cleaner in tests than they did on the road. US regulators made public the wrongdoing on September 18.

Sky News reported that Horn said the embattled company takes “full responsibility for our actions and we are working with all relevant authorities in a cooperative way” and that it is “determined to make things right”.

Horn will tell Congress he only learned about the cheating software “over the past several weeks”, VW spokeswoman Jeannine Ginivan told The Associated Press Wednesday.

Horn said the events had been “deeply troubling”, adding: “I did not think that something like this was possible at the Volkswagen Group. Second is to ask the same question of other carmakers and see if there is any such activity taking place”, Tennessee congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, who is vice-chairman of the committee, told Reuters.

When a auto company launches a recall, they have to pay for everything including trained technicians to fix the problem, customer outreach to let people know what’s happening, shipping and storing new parts, lawyers, public relations and crisis management experts.

He said that three Volkswagen employees have resigned in Germany since the news broke, but he legally couldn’t reveal who they were.

Millions of vehicles falling under Volkswagen’s various brands have been found to have on-board software developed by the company to deceive emissions testers.

The presence of emissions defeat devices may be a breach of the Australian Design Rules under the Motor Vehicle Standards Act 1989.