Top Volkswagen exec apologizes for emissions scandal

“Our patience with Volkswagen is wearing thin”, New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, said.

LAS VEGAS (AP) – The top executive of the Volkswagen brand worldwide says he’s optimistic that US environmental regulators will approve fixes within the coming weeks or months for diesel engines that cheat on emissions tests.

State attorneys from 48 USA states expressed discontent with VW’s gambit of citing German law as the reason for not turning over the requested emails.

On November 30, previous year a Delhi-based school teacher had also moved a similar plea and referred to ARAI’s report, alleging that Volkswagen in India was selling vehicles which produce nitrogen oxide 9 times higher than the prescribed limit.

The German automaker saw its December sales in the US decline by 9 percent compared to the same month in 2014.

“We are in permanent exchange with USA authorities and are cooperating closely with them”.

After addressing its ongoing scandal for the first three minutes, Diess used the rest of his time onstage to explain the “new Volkswagen”, which he said will be moving towards zero emissions and will stand for everything from affordable electric mobility to fully-connected vehicles, automated driving and an entirely new user experience.

“We at Volkswagen are disappointed that this could happen within the company we love”, he continued.

Volkswagen was facing the heat from the US Justice Department when it sued the German automobile maker for installing devices so that it could bypass the emission control regime of US.

VW is facing calls to buy back the 482,000 affected vehicles, especially after news earlier this week that the U.S. Department of Justice filed a suit against the automaker for violations of the Clean Air Act, reopening fears of multi-billion-dollar fines for the company. And even so, VW may yet face criminal charges, said people familiar with the U.S. investigation. These engines have been offered with urea injection for far longer than the smaller four-cylinder TDIs found in VW Group sedans, which would make their culpability here far more surprising.

Volkswagen (VW) will likely have to buy back or replace about 115,000 of its diesel vehicles equipped with emission cheating technology in the USA, approximately one fifth of all affected cars in America.

It was not clear if VW’s internal probe will examine the documents being withheld from the state AGs.

VW chief executive officer Matthias Mueller is expected to meet EPA representatives and politicians in Washington next week.