Pressure grows on Volkswagen as bad news piles up

Previously, the automaker had suspended USA sales of cars with smaller, 2.0-liter diesel engines after news broke that almost 500,000 of them sold in the country had the software, known as a “defeat device”.

The software gave the diesel engines the capability to rig emissions tests. Vehicles such as the 2013 Audi Q7, the 2014-2015 Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5 and Q7 all contain the said engine.

Porsche Cars North America issued a stop-sale Tuesday evening: “Porsche Cars North America, Inc. today decided, in view of the unexpected U.S. EPA notice received yesterday, to voluntarily discontinue sales of model year 2014 through 2016 Porsche Cayenne Diesel vehicles until further notice”. This revalation added 10,000 vehicles to the list of 11 million. Nitrogen oxide is a pollutant associated with respiratory problems.

Prosecutors in Braunschweig are already looking into VW’s diesel products, and will examine the newly disclosed information with a decision on a new investigation coming by next week, spokesman Klaus Ziehe said by phone Thursday.

Via an official statement, Volkswagen denied that its V6 TDI engines contain defeat devices.

Moody’s cut the company’s rating by one step to A3, citing expanded allegations on emissions cheating and the company’s admission that it falsified fuel consumption levels on a few cars.

The carmaker said Tuesday after the European market close that it found “unexplained inconsistencies” in carbon dioxide emissions in a few vehicles.

Last week, VW booked its first quarterly loss in more than 15 years as it set aside 6.7 billion euros to cover the initial costs of the scandal. “The majority of the vehicles concerned have diesel engines”.

Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt noted that Germany’s auto tax is calculated on the basis of engine size and carbon dioxide emissions, and so “if these vehicles emit more CO2, over and above the respective limit, that makes a new calculation necessary”.

“Volkswagen Group India will continue to fully cooperate with the Government of India in this matter”, a company spokesperson said. That may seem like a drop in the bucket compared with Volkswagen’s earlier recall of 8.5 million diesel vehicles in Europe alone.

VW discovered the problem after getting reports of camshaft failures.