USA regulators probe whether Volkswagens have 2nd cheat device

Volkswagen’s top USA executive offered apology for emission cheating scandal in front of US lawmakers on Thursday but no remedy schedule was announced.

The EPA’s Grundler told lawmakers he expects Volkswagen to provide options for fixing the cars as early as next week. Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican, said he owns one of the diesel cars included in the scandal.

But Horn defended his bosses in Wolfsburg, saying that the decision to install a defeat device was made by lower-ranking engineers, not Volkswagen’s senior leadership.

AUDI and Volkswagen have confirmed they will recall Australian cars caught up in the Volkswagen Group diesel emissions scandal.

Several members of the committee said the violations reflect a broader problem with the auto industry in the wake of scandals at Toyota, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and supplier Takata.

Horn said that three VW employees have been suspended as part of an internal investigation, though he said he couldn’t reveal their names due to German law.

The same cars had met emissions standards when tested in the lab.

Volkswagen would deliver the software to the EPA and the California Air Resources Board, following which the two regulators will “begin evaluating the proposed software”, the EPA said in an emailed statement to Reuters. The automaker finally admitted last month it was using a so-called “defeat device” to bypass EPA emission standards for clean air.

Second generation engines number around 90,000 in the USA and will have fixes ready by around the middle of 2016.

He says the company doesn’t know how much the cheating will cost Volkswagen.

Volkswagen Group of America CEO Michael Horn on Thursday told a House panel that the automaker has withdrawn its application to the Environmental Protection Agency for certification of emissions regulations of those vehicles. He replied, “This was a couple of software engineers who put this in for whatever reason”. “This was not a corporate decision, to the best of my knowledge”, said Horn.

But after intense questioning, The Guardian reported that his response was: “I agree it’s very hard to believe …”

The company told regulators only on September 3 that it was using defeat devices in diesel cars since the 2009 models, Horn said.

USA chief executive Michael Horn is telling a U.S. House subcommittee that the cars will still get the window sticker fuel mileage when they are repaired. “Maybe, on top speed, one or two miles per hour may be missing”, Horn said. According to USA Today, which covered the testimony live, Horn said that the affected cars would be repaired instead of bought back from owners, though the company is considering compensating owners.

Early questions did not hint at exactly what penalties the company might face, Representative Joe Barton of Texas said the manipulation deserved “more than just a slap on the wrist”.

But a few analysts have questioned whether new Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch and new CEO Matthias Mueller, both company veterans, will introduce the sweeping changes in business practices they think are necessary to restore Volkswagen’s reputation.

If so, that’s not an excuse, Horn said, calling the entire episode “deeply troubling”.