Audi engines implicated in VW emissions scandal

South Korea on Thursday became the first country outside the United States to punish Volkswagen AG on the basis of its own emissions tests, slapping the German automaker with a record fine and ordering a recall of 125,522 vehicles.

Volkswagen admitted on 20 November that some software on 2009-2016 diesel vehicles including the Porsche Cayenne, Volkswagen Touareg and Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5 and Q7 has an undeclared auxiliary emissions control that could be considered a “defeat device”.

The German automaker has been negotiating with the authorities on details of a plan to deal with 482,000 diesel vehicles sold in the US that used deceptive software to duck emissions requirements for the 2-liter engine.

Korea’s Ministry of Environment has ordered Volkswagen to reimburse Korean buyers, after confirming the company installed emissions-cheating software in diesel vehicles sold in Korea.

Volkswagen said earlier that a recall in Australia would be voluntary for Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda customers with the offending engines in their vehicles.

Audi Australia spokeswoman Anna Burgdorf said its diesel engines will get the same computer upgrades as VW. USA environmental authorities have said that one model of the V6 engine contained software to circumvent emissions tests, known as a defeat device.

Volkswagen has officially announced “the next step” in reigning in the emissions from its offending EA189 engines caught up in the “dieselgate” emissions scandal.

To subscribe to the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper in the Philippines, call +63 2 896-6000 for Metro Manila and Metro Cebu or email your subscription request here. Parent Volkswagen Group has faced most of the criticism for implementing “defeat” software to circumvent emissions regulations in the U.S. and overseas.

The engine also breached emissions rules when the auto was not under the usual test conditions, as during sudden acceleration, when the air conditioner was turned on and when the vehicle was on the road, the ministry said. According to an explanation provided by the company on how it plans to fix the issue, the two affected engines are 1.6- and 2.0-litre ones and some 8.5 million cars are affected; however, the fixes are less complex than initially thought. Those investigations will be completed by April, the ministry said.