A year later, VW admitted 11 million vehicles worldwide had software installed that rendered official emissions tests worthless.
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Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor asked Horn whether he felt, “personally cheated”, by the scandal, due to his 25 years’ service to Volkswagen, to which he replied, “Yes”.
“This will help to bring about a swift and complete resolution of the case, which is very much in Volkswagen’s interest”, the company said in a statement. Representative Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican, questioned the size of EPA’s annual budget, noting that the cheating was uncovered by a West Virginia University study that had a budget of less than $70,000.
VW said such devices can sense engine performance, road speed “and any other parameter for activating, modulating, delaying or deactivating” emissions controls. “We are working with the agencies to continue the certification process”.
The United Kingdom will re-test Euro 5 category diesel cars which VW group has confirmed contain the defeat device software. The “dieselgate” scandal upset the world’s second largest carmaker enough to force resignation of its CEO, Martin Winterkorn, and announce cost of repairs will be $7.3 billion.
German police swept into Volkswagen’s headquarters today, carrying away files and hard disks in their investigation into a massive pollution cheating scandal engulfing the auto giant. That raised questions about whether a “defeat device” similar to that in earlier models is also in the new cars. However, company investigators haven’t found any evidence against the engineers.
During the hearing, lawmakers from both parties fondly recalled their first VWs before hammering the iconic company for betraying the public’s trust.
More than a month after the company first confessed the emissions-rigging to USA regulators, Horn said it doesn’t yet have a detailed plan for fixing the almost 500,000 “clean diesel” cars sold in the US with the suspect software since the 2009 model year.
The raids came as Volkswagen’s USA chief prepared to face Congress, when he would tell a committee that he knew more than a year ago that the group’s cars possibly breached pollution rules.
Horn also said the company takes full responsibility for its actions and is cooperating with authorities as the case unfolds. But he offered little new, saying the company’s external investigation remains at a preliminary stage.
Volkswagen said the affected cars fall into three generations of vehicles.
The automaker is temporarily banned from selling diesel cars fitted with the manipulative software until it can deliver a fix.
Horn said the repaired cars would not suffer reduced mileage, although performance may be affected.
In Germany, Volkswagen submitted plans Wednesday that said it would begin recalling affected vehicles from January, but admitted that it would only complete the refitting by the end of 2016.
The oldest cars, 325,000 vehicles grouped as Generation 1, would require major changes including the installation of new hardware.
The EPA’s Grundler told lawmakers he expects Volkswagen to provide options for fixing the cars as early as next week.
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The automaker withdrew an application to have the vehicles certified by the EPA this week.
