VW emissions issue in larger vehicles dates back to 2009 -U.S

Volkswagen AG told regulators this week that roughly 75,000 additional diesel vehicles sold in the USA have potentially problematic software issues, though it isn’t clear the German auto giant admitted the vehicles are able to cheat on emissions tests.

In a few negative news for Volkswagen, it was reported that the company’s emission scandal widened after the US Environmental Protection Agency said that the German automaker used software to cheat emission norms on more six cylinder diesel vehicles than originally thought.

The EPA said today that Volkswagen and Audi officials yesterday admitted that the software that fudges on emissions tests was present on all vehicles powered by the VW group’s 3.0-liter diesel V-6 engine since the 2009 model year. Also covered are Audi A6, A7, A8, and Q5s from the 2014 to 2016 model years, according to the EPA.

The use of the “defeat device” is a violation of the Clean Air Act.

“Based on ARB’s review, VW may be required to revise and resubmit all, or specific elements of the recall plan”, the board said in an e-mailed statement.

The EPA had previously accused the company of installing the defeat-device software on almost 500,000 smaller cars with 2-liter engines as well as 10,000 3-liter models made from 2014 to 2016, but this news broadens the scandal even further. “We anticipate that there will be discussion of VW’s draft remedy and recall proposal”, said the spokesperson.

As it gets set to present US regulators with plan to fix its diesel vehicles, Volkswagen announced plans to cut its capital spending by €1 billion ($1.4 billion Cdn) next year.

“We are fully cooperating with the environmental authorities and working on concrete measures that will resolve this situation”, said Jeri Ward, Audi of America communications chief.

In addition, VW was shown earlier this month to have also understated carbon emissions for 800,000 vehicles.

The meeting between company officials, EPA and the California regulators involved technical experts who talked about three pieces of equipment on the 3.0-litre engines that should have been disclosed as auxiliary emissions control devices, Ward said.

Stock prices have plummeted, shares have gone down to as much as 34 percent in late September, and on top of that, Volkswagen was forced to halt sales to fix the millions of existing cars. Volkswagen has not said how deep those cuts will be.