Volkswagen to cut spending by $1.07 billion in 2016

Volkswagen officials acknowledged Friday emissions control violations include its three-liter V-6 diesel vehicles, widening the automaker’s cheating scandal to some 85,000 Volkswagens, Audis and Porsches.

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

Audi of America had previously issued a stop-sale order for the A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L and Q5 models from the 2013 to 2016 model years, company spokeswoman Jeri Ward said.

The EPA alleged that the engine’s control software was able to detect an emissions test and enter a “temperature conditioning” mode that limited the output of NOx. VW made the disclosure after submitting plans to the EPA to fix a much larger problem – emission cheating software on 482,000 four cylinder diesel cars. Late last week, the automaker finally admitted that the Environmental Protection Agency was correct when it said that Volkswagen had installed illegal emissions control software on its 3.0-liter diesel engines.

Clegern said the device in the 3-liter engines has a timer that shuts it off shortly after the test cycle used to make sure the vehicle’s emissions meet clear-air rules.

The suspect software is different from the so-called defeat device installed on 11 million other cars.

Audi confirmed Monday that the three brands were affected and that it would cost “in the mid-double-digit millions of euros” to provide a remedy that would be approved by USA authorities.

We learned from Car Recalls UK that the reason why Volkswagen is only compensating those affected drivers in the U.S. is because this is seen as a new and important market to the USA, along with the fact that the Secretary of State can impose an unlimited fine on the carmaker.

Volkswagen will reduce spending by 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) in 2016 and “strictly prioritize” investments as it readies to contend with the ongoing fallout from the scandal, CEO Michael Mueller said in a statement Friday.

“So we agreed to take all of the 3-liter diesel engines, look at the software, recalibrate it and then we’ll resubmit it to the agencies so they’re comfortable with how it’s performing and what it’s doing”, said Stertz.