VW sales in European Union rise in September despite emissions scandal

German authorities have ordered a recall of all VW cars fitted with the software, affecting 8.5 million diesel cars across the EU.

The separate device included in the redesigned 2016 cars would appear to suggest a multi-year effort by the company to influence US emissions tests that continued even after regulators began pressing the company last year about irregularities with the emissions produced by the older cars.

Mr Willis also admitted “the level of information to customers needs to be faster and needs to improve” but he said the company wants customers to know that they “do care” and “really want to put these things right”.

Meanwhile, there’s more turmoil in Volkswagen’s executive ranks.

“[We’re] forcing Volkswagen to recall 2.4 million vehicles in Germany”.

Volkswagen has said around 11 million cars with the software were sold worldwide, 2.8 million of them in Germany.

Alexander Dobrindt, transport minister in the German government, said Volkswagen would have to remove the devices and “take the necessary steps to ensure compliance with emission regulations”.

Volkswagen’s emissions scandal broke in mid-September when USA authorities discovered software that disabled emissions controls except when they were being tested.

“Outside [Europe], each individual country will clarify in detail which emissions classes of the EA 189 [diesel] engine are in fact affected”, the company said.

He said Volkswagen Group’s goal is to be “the world’s most sustainable vehicle manufacturer by 2018”, adding: “I promise with my dedicated team we will fully resolve this issue, do the right thing and regain trust in our brand”.

“Volkswagen United Kingdom must set out an urgent timetable for redress to the owners of the affected vehicles”. Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Mueller said last week all cars in Germany should be fixed by the end of 2016.

“This has the function of a warmup strategy which is subject to approval by the agencies”, a Volkswagen spokeswoman said, per the news service.

If it is determined the new issue is a second defeat device, that would call into question recent assertions by top VW executives that responsibility for the cheating scheme lay with a handful of rogue software developers who wrote the original code installed with the company’s diesel engines starting with the 2009 model year.

– CNN’s Chris Liakos and Laura Perez-Maestro contributed to this article.