Brazil fines Volkswagen $13 million over emissions cheating scheme; orders recall

According to US News, 482,000 owners of diesel Volkswagens and Audis in the USA have been “in limbo” since the middle of September when the scandal broke out.

A few owners took to social media to vent about what they believed to be a lowball offer given the depreciation sustained by their cars since the scandal erupted two months ago.

The journalists wrote that they have seen documents which prove the commission was aware of the fraud as early as 2011.

“If this information is confirmed, it means that the former and current industry commissioners, Mr Tajani and Mrs Bienkowska respectively, have hidden the facts and knowingly lied to the European Parliament”, they wrote.

Volkswagen has said it hired advisory firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd and U.S. law firm Jones Day to investigate under what circumstances the company installed software into diesel cars that changed engine settings to reduce emissions whenever the vehicle was put through tests.

“But VW was not brought up in the discussion. ICCT was doing their project independently, as well”, he said. It would seem that the total amount of vehicles affected by the emission cheat device is 17,057 units.

German automaker Volkswagen AG is in talks with lenders to put together a short-term financing plan to ensure it has adequate liquidity to cover fines and other expenses from the emissions scandal, people close to the matter told Bloomberg.

“We never designed or conducted any research project to search for defeat devices or any evidence of cheating”. Automotive News reported today that global deliveries of VW cars dipped 5.3 percent in October to 490,000 cars.

Sales in China, Volkswagen single biggest market, grew 1.8% in October, but are 6.5% down so far this year. These include Volkswagen cars and Audi cars.

A VW of America spokeswoman said the CO2 issue will not have an impact on the US market where carbon emissions are calculated differently than in Europe.

Volkswagen has said employees can come forward with information about how the company cheated on emissions tests – and will not be fired.