Volkswagen fix revealed for Australia

Once approved, it would provide the updated software to owners.

Volkswagen Australia has previously admitted up to 91,000 cars in Australia were affected by the emissions device that was installed in cars from 2009.

However, several Volkswagen executives, including the company’s chief executive at the time, Martin Winterkorn, have either stepped down or been suspended pending the outcome of the investigations.

A spokesman for Audi’s works council, which has about half the seats on the carmaker’s supervisory board, said the company’s labour boss would comment on the situation later on Thursday.

Those vehicles may be easier to repair.Volkswagen did not sell any engines smaller than 2 liters in the United States, though a small number of cars with 1.6-liter motors may have been imported from Mexico or other countries. Previously the cars were only meeting emissions guidelines in lab tests and ignoring them while on the open road.

The carmakers have 45 days to submit plans to remove the software. Volkswagen is in talks with USA environmental authorities over how to fix the cars in the U.S.

“This action is the result of an admission by officials at Audi A.G., manufacturer of all the engines involved, that the vehicles contain three auxiliary emissions control devices”, CARB said in a statement on its website.

Modifying Volkswagen diesel cars sold in the United States will be more complicated because of stricter rules on emissions of nitrogen oxide, a pollutant harmful to the environment and human health. One of those investigations concerns the rigged diesel engines, while the other centers on the understating of carbon-dioxide emissions.

Volkswagen has also set a target of “no adverse effects” on fuel consumption and performance but stopped short of confirming this would be the case until final validation testing has been completed.

Those companies to be included in the investigation include top names like BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Volvo, Peugeot and Ford, as well as South Korea’s Hyundai Motor and its sister company Kia Motors. The defeat device turns on the exhaust gas recirculation system in the indoor driving test to fake the emissions level and turned off the system in actual outdoor driving, meaning excessive emissions were not detected, it said.