Volkswagen halting sales of 3.0-liter diesels in U.S., Canada

German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Wednesday his department will oversee a retest of both gasoline- and diesel-powered Volkswagen brands, including Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and Seat, to gauge their true carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions, according to Reuters. He believes future sales won’t suffer because the company will ultimately “do the right thing” for owners of the affected diesel vehicles.

Dobrindt also said VW is responsible for finding a solution where “customers face neither extra costs nor effort”.

VW is Europe’s biggest motor manufacturer, employing over 750,000 people in Germany, and has been a symbol of the nation’s engineering prowess. However, Dobrindt said the firm had caused “irritation in my ministry and with me”, while Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said it had to take steps to prevent such a case happening again, adding: “VW has a duty to clear this up transparently and comprehensively”.

The expansion in the scandal from VW to multiple vehicles sold by Porsche and Audi, said Kelley Blue Book analyst Karl Brauer, “casts a darker shadow” on the whole corporation.

The fallout from Volkswagen’s emissions-cheating scandal intensified Wednesday, as investors bailed out and European regulators pressured VW to quickly disclose the findings of an internal investigation.

But Moody’s said that Volkswagen’s business and financial strength give it room to shore up its cash flow for unplanned costs, and so justify the medium investment grade credit rating of A2. Volkswagen’s ordinary shares have tumbled 23 percent since the scandal was revealed, and the total market value of the company has fallen by 24.2 billion euros – the equivalent of $26.3 billion at current exchange rates – to 52.75 billion euros, a drop of 31 percent.

Volkswagen crashed to a loss of 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in the third quarter due to the scandal.

VW said pre-owned models from 2013-2014 are included in stop-sale order to dealer. “If they start railing about our product we have a problem”.

Volkswagen acknowledged that 11 million vehicles with small diesel engines worldwide have the software – but only after denying its use for more than a year.

“This is not the same thing as the defeat device named in the initial 2.0-liter diesel notice from EPA”, said Audi corporate communications manager Brad Stertz.

Comments from Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board in Los Angeles, indicated the German group has a formidable task to persuade US authorities.

But Volkswagen says the V6 diesels had a different emissions control system.

“With every widening of the scandal, the likelihood grows that a large number of people at VW had knowledge”, he said. It’s meeting with the EPA to better understand the new test results.

The company estimated this latest revelation could cost it two billion euros ($2.2 billion).