VW emissions scandal spreads to more vehicles

The German automaker met a late Friday deadline in offering a plan to fix the 482,000 diesel vehicles sold in the US that it acknowledges were outfitted with devices to cheat pollution tests.

This NOV said VW had developed and installed defeat devices in certain VW, Audi and Porsche cars equipped with 3.0 liter engines for model years 2014 through 2016.

The confession marks the conclusion of a slow, 180-degree pivot by Volkswagen.

Europe’s largest auto maker is embroiled in a global emissions scandal that involves diesel and gasoline engines and could potentially cost tens of billions of euros in fines and litigation, in addition to installing new software and hardware.

Volkswagen and Audi cars fitted with those engines violate USA emission limits in real-world use-and yesterday, a BBC investigation showed that the software similarly let them violate European standards as well. The affected models include the A6, A7, A8, A8L, Q5 and Q7 models from the 2009 through the 2016 model year, along with the Porsche Cayenne Diesel and the Volkswagen Touareg TDI. Audi said Monday that it would install updated software in about 10,000 vehicles that the EPA said were also programmed to deceive regulators.

The move, which affects more than 85,000 Volkswagen Group vehicles from model year 2009 to the present, comes after a meeting last week with Audi officials, the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board. The bad news is that Volkswagen Group still needs a solution for the bulk of their millions of emissions-cheating vehicles.

Volkswagen had earlier also said that it would now need to cut spending on new projects. He said the company agreed with the agencies to reprogram it “so that the regulators see it, understand it and approve it and feel comfortable with the way it’s performing”.

Audi said in its statement on the larger V-6 diesels that three separate AECD software routines had not been properly disclosed to the EPA.

“We are willing to take another crack at reprogramming to a degree that the regulators deem acceptable”, Mr Stertz said.

The other interesting bit of information is that Audi has made it very clear that it is responsible for this part of the Dieselgate scandal, not Volkswagen Passenger Cars.