Volkswagen To Recall 323.700 Cars In India Over Emission Scandal

The lawsuit, filed by a NY diesel owner in US District Court in Detroit, states that Bosch’s “hear no evil, see no evil” attitude is no excuse for enabling the vehicle maker to cheat in emission tests by providing the controversial software.

Rival Fiat Chrysler posted its best November sales in 15 years, with a three per cent gain to 175,974 vehicles.

According to company officials, the suspension affects about 20 percent of its typical sales but appears to have also impacted non-diesel models. VW’s highest-volume cars were among the hardest hit, with Jetta compact sedan sales falling 23 percent and Passat midsize sedan deliveries dropping 60 percent.

VW has a plan for fixing the roughly 567,000 vehicles in the U.S. that contain the emissions-cheating software, and has submitted it to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resource Board (CARB) for review.

The software made it seem as though the vehicles, most of which had 2.0-liter diesel TDI engines, seem as though they were compliant with emissions standards when, in fact, some were emitting as much as 40 times the legal amount.

Volkswagen, which stopped selling diesel cars in the US, said the impact of a widening emissions scandal caused its sales to plunge almost 25 percent during the month.

Total sales fell by almost 8,000 vehicles from a year ago to 23,882 units in November. “The most unfortunate aspect of this whole situation for Volkswagen is they have to start the healing process and the repairing process for their brand, and you can’t do that while the scandal is still growing”, said veteran automotive analyst Karl Brauer of Kelley Blue Book.

Late on December 1, 2015, the Volkswagen Group announced a voluntary recall of 323,700 units of its vehicles in India equipped with diesel engines belonging to the EA 189 engine family, which has been at the centre of the worldwide emissions scandal. It faces fine of up to United States dollars 18 billion in the US.

“Volkswagen is working tirelessly on an approved remedy for the affected TDI vehicles”, VW of America COO Mark McNabb said in the statement.

S&P said that for VW “these risks and related costs continue to expand and deepen, particularly following the recent disclosures regarding the misrepresentation of Carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption levels”. The comment during a closed-door meeting with the government came even as heavy industries minister Anant Geete said that the violation was detected when on-road vehicles were tested and described it as “a well thought-out crime”.