Berlin says 2.8 mln vehicles in Germany affected by VW manipulations

The taskforce has been in contact with importers of potentially affected cars, foreign registration offices, including in Germany as well as other Swiss authorities at both the federal and regional leve, the statement said. The centre, which has studied engine emissions and use of alternative fuels since 1989, would evaluate three diesel passenger cars, including a Volkswagen Passat and Jetta.

It did not detail say where in the world the five million Volkswagens were sold.

At a New York promotional event Monday night, VW’s USA leader Michael Horn said the company “totally screwed up”.

It also said it would shrink its management board and get rid of the position of production chief.

“My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group – by leaving no stone unturned and with maximum transparency, as well as drawing the right conclusions from the current situation”, said Mueller.

“We stand by our responsibility”, he said. “We are always looking for ways that we can make our emissions standards more effective”.

“I’ve had a couple of customers who want to trade in their cars as a result of this, but my response is to wait and see what kind of assistance Volkswagen will put on the table for customers”. An announcement of the changes could come on Friday. The additional testing announced Friday is part of a “continuous evolution of our oversight” of new and used cars and trucks, Grundler said.

The United Kingdom is to launch its own investigation into vehicle emissions testing, following the Volkswagen scandal.

He added that VW vans as well as cars are caught up in the scandal.

The European Union will introduce new tests from next year, with on-road testing complementing the laboratory work that is now being done. BMW denied manipulating or rigging diesel emissions. Sales of VW’s 2016, 4-cylinder diesel models are held up as they await EPA certification.

Last week, the EPA found that Volkswagen had falsified pollution tests on 482,000 VW and Audi diesel cars in the U.S. VW later acknowledged that similar software exists in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide. It later emerged that cars in Europe were also affected, although it remains unclear how many might be in the UK.

“The Executive Committee notes that Professor Dr. Winterkorn had no knowledge of the manipulation of emissions data”.

Automobile manufacturers were reluctant to comment on diesel’s attributes in the midst of the Volkswagen scandal, which cost the group’s chief executive Martin Winterkorn his job on Wednesday. It said that so-called defeat devices have never been used by the company, and that goes for all diesel and gas engines. Manufacturers will be required to supply vehicles for testing upon request. The vehicles on this list all use ultra-low sulfur diesel and they’re ranked from least fuel-efficient to most.

ICCT denied being involved in the test last night.

“The hairier the problem, the more excited these people will be. It’s a question of where we deploy those resources”, Grundler told reporters Friday.

The agency said it was working on the case jointly with the customs and transportation authorities. Nevertheless, the stock plunged almost 7 percent in Thursday trading. The report did not allege any cheating by BMW.

Over the summer, Volkswagen revealed how its TDI engine operated and how its pollution controls worked, but that still didn’t explain the odd anomalies.