Experts blast Volkswagen explanation for scandal

But it would take more than one year to fix a lot of them because it involves more than a simple software adjustment. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said in the hearings, “Over the past 5 years, the world’s 3 largest automakers have come before this committee to admit that they have cheated the system and lied to American consumers”.

German police raided Volkswagen headquarters and VW employee homes Thursday morning in a bid to discover the one(s) behind the vehicle maker’s decision to cheat on diesel emissions tests.

That raised questions about whether a so-called “defeat device” similar to that in earlier models is also in the new cars.

“There is no evidence that used auto prices are coming under pressure for the Volkswagen brand or for the Volkswagen group models”, Christof Engelskirchen, the Swiss-based company’s managing director, said.

Societe Generale recently estimated the emissions scandal could end up costing Volkswagen almost $36 billion over the next two years as it contends with expenses including recall costs, vehicle buybacks, regulatory fines and class-action settlements.

“This was a couple of software engineers who put this in for whatever reason”, Michael Horn, VW’s USA chief, told a House subcommittee hearing. The oldest version, installed in about 325,000 cars, needed both hardware and software changes to make it compliant with emissions rule.

Stanley Young, a spokesman for the California Air Resources Board said the agency was investigating the nature of the second device but declined to provide specifics because VW’s application “is still pending”.

The company’s U.S. Chief, Michael Horn, faced US lawmakers Thursday where he apologized on behalf of his company and admitted all wrongdoing falls exclusively on VW. Horn said, during questioning, that he only learnt of the defeat devices a few days before public disclosure.

Volkswagen’s United States boss has offered a “sincere apology” for the emissions scandal and vowed “this will never happen again”.

Any fixes will have to be unique to the three different generations of diesel engines and will need to be tested and approved by regulators, Horn said in his written testimony.

After contacting the EPA with the confusing test results, the EPA challenged VW to explain the discrepancies.

The defeat devices then turn off pollution controls when the vehicle is on the road, allowing it to spew out harmful levels of toxic gases.

Horn continued: “I was also informed that the company engineers would work with the agencies to resolve the issue”.