South Korea: VW rigged emissions in 125000 diesel vehicles

It was found the diesel emissions in Volkswagen vehicles were lowered during testing.

That was followed by the huge diesel emission cheating scandal that shocked the world.

Technical measures to override the “cheat” device fitted to the engines that defeated emissions-testing procedures have been approved by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority for 2.0-litre and 1.6-litre versions of the powerplant.

The alterations are expected to be applied to recalled vehicles from January 2016, however it will take until the end of next year until changes are made to all applicable vehicles.

Last week, a Korean civic group also sued Volkswagen Korea CEO Thomas Kuehl for allegedly taking financial advantage by violating rules, causing environment problems and harming public health. The affected models include the popular Tiguan model.

Many laboratories and governments use lab tests to measure emissions from vehicles and road tests to measure fuel efficiency.

The engines in question were built by Audi and distributed to Porsche and Volkswagen as well, said David Clegern, a California Air Resources Board spokesman.

At present South Korea’s Environment Ministry said it had not yet determined whether VW vehicles with the newer EA288 engine (primarily Euro 6 models) had rigged emissions.

“For everyone, presumption of innocence applies until the investigations have been finalized”, said Mr. De Graeve.

Volkswagen said it respects the investigation results. Audi said the software that could be considered a “defeat device” is for “temperature conditioning of the exhaust gas cleaning system”.

But Volkswagen subsequently revealed that beyond the nitrogen oxide scam, it had also understated carbon dioxide emissions of 800,000 vehicles, including petrol cars.

Volkswagen said in a statement Wednesday that in Europe the 2.0 liter EA 189 engine will require only a software update taking half an hour to install.

That admission has triggered both regulatory and criminal investigations in several countries, including Germany and the United States.