VW SCANDAL: Now 3.0-litre diesel engines are implicated

Now, Volkswagen has admitted that their 3.0 litre V6 diesel engines are also affected. The California environmental regulators have 20 days to review the plan and may request changes to VW. As a result EPA can fine VW with $37,500 per vehicle for Clean Air Act violations.

Audi spokeswoman Jeri Ward says that the 3.0-litre software at issue “meets (EPA and CARB’s) definition of a defeat device”.

In its earlier statement, the EPA listed the 2014 Volkswagen Touareg, 2015 Porsche Cayenne, along with the Audi A6 quattro, A7 quattro, A8, A8L, and Q5 from model year 2016, as the models affected.

This brings the total number of affected vehicles in the U.S. up to around 85,000. This is in addition to the 482,000 vehicles fitted with the four-cylinder diesel engine. The disclosure widened the scandal, which had previously focused mainly on smaller-engined, mass-market cars, and raised the possibility that engineers at both the Audi and VW brands could have been involved in separate emissions schemes. VW also could buy back a few of the older cars, which date to the 2009 model year.

“Today’s announcement adds to the growing list of troubling questions for Volkswagen”, lawmakers, led by Fred Upton, chairman of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, said.

The European owners of the cars fitted with the illegal software will not benefit from the same “goodwill package” as the U.S. customers. Many industry experts believe that the allegation involving six cylinder diesel means that more owners would face recalls of their cars to fix the software.

The software devices turn on pollution controls when the vehicle is undergoing testing, and off when it is back on the road, allowing it to spew out harmful levels of nitrogen oxide. The automaker has been given until the end of the year to investigate the matter and provide full information to regulatory bodies in Europe.

Volkswagen will reduce spending by 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) in 2016 and “strictly prioritize” investments as it readies to contend with the ongoing fallout from the scandal, CEO Michael Mueller said in a statement Friday. It said it will only spend 12 billion euros (approximately $12.7 billion) in 2016 on capital expenditure, down on the 13 billion euros average of the past several years.