VW Emissions Scandal: Audi Engineers Suspended

The global scope of the scandal has put Volkswagen under intense financial pressure. Confirmation came from Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller to company executives, in a meeting on Monday in Wolfsburg.

“I asked them: Is that a defeat device?” Controlling emissions requires more advanced technology that raises costs, they said.

“This wasn’t an accident, this wasn’t a mistake, the Volkswagen Group perpetuated a fraud against millions of motorists globally, nearly 100,000 of which live here in Australia”, said the spokesman for the National Roads and Motorists’ Association, Peter Khoury.

A further problem in the United States is that there are only about 1,000 Volkswagen and Audi dealers that could carry out the repairs.

Audi confirmed the veracity of the comments made by Mr. Stadler in Donaukurier.

“We are surprised and shocked by the emissions news from the U.S.”, Audi’s acting chairman, Berthold Huber, said in a joint statement with works council boss Peter Mosch. “We take this very seriously and treat responses to the agencies as a solemn responsibility”.

The ministry will also expand the investigation into other auto brands. The U.S. and German investigations could lead to criminal charges against Audi employees. It pledged to contact all customers and to consider the needs of every individual, offering to provide courtesy cars free of charge. VW estimates this will only take about 30 minutes per vehicle to implement. It was also the engine of choice for the Volkswagen Touareg and the Porsche Cayenne since 2013.

Mr. Stadler has declined repeated requests to speak to The Wall Street Journal about the emissions crisis. At least two engineers have been suspended as the company continues its internal investigation.

The Environment Ministry said it found the defeat device software working in Volkswagen Tiguans equipped with the EA189 engine. This, along with a software update to recognize the air patterns, will put the engines into compliance after cheating emissions tests.

Volkswagen has presented its solutions to diesel engines affected by the Carbon dioxide emissions scandal to the Federal Motor Transport Authority in Germany ahead of a planned recall in January.

At this stage the fix is only for European vehicles, although cars powered by 3-litre diesel engines can be fixed anywhere with just a software update.

The software at issue in the three-litre vehicles is significantly different than the software in the vehicles with smaller engines. The vehicles to be recalled contain the diesel engines which produce emissions greater than allowed, according to Reuters.

But Volkswagen will have gone a long way toward overcoming the crisis it faces if it can fix the cars in Europe.