Britain says VW owners will not face higher vehicle tax

The amount of vehicle excise duty – commonly known as auto tax – depends on a vehicle’s Carbon dioxide emissions.

‘Our priority is to protect the public and give them full confidence in diesel tests‘. Neither cars, nor the testing facilities will be provided by the vehicle industry themselves.

The United Kingdom government launched an investigation into the scandal, as have other countries, and said it would look at whether other carmakers were using defeat devices.

It is hoped that t his coordinated approach will improve consistency and enable the widest range of vehicles to be tested across Europe.

AA president Edmund King said: “This decision will put many drivers’ minds at ease”.

The company was forced to apologise last week after it was discovered that it had developed the device in order to trick emission tests in the USA for a few of its diesel models. It is reported that when running normally, the cars emit up to 40 times the pollution limit.

Although the specifics of the recall plan is yet to be released, VW said a “self-serve process” might be set up, allowing United Kingdom customers to find out if their vehicles are affected.

Volkswagen’s share price dropped by over 3% after the news of the French investigation emerged.

The decision was taken to enable the firm to “resolve the current issue with the vehicles”, a spokesman said.

The company then admitted to the illegal use and also added about 11 million cars around the world had the received the illegal software tweak, sending the stock down by around a third and wiping off a few 20 billion euros off its market value.