Customers and motor dealers are furious because they say Volkswagen has yet to specify which vehicles models and years of manufacture are affected, and whether cars are going to be recalled for refits. It will also have to fix software it has said is in some 11 million cars worldwide, way more than the 482,000 identified last week by USA authorities.
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The software at the center of Volkswagen’s emissions scandal in the USA was built into the automaker’s cars in Europe as well, Germany said Thursday, though it isn’t yet clear if it helped cheat tests as it did in the U.S. Chris Grundler, director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality, said the EPA has 23 portable systems to use for testing.
The Swiss ban could potentially affect up to 180,000 cars made by Volkswagen’s Audi, SEAT, Skoda and VW brands between 2009 and 2014.
Staggering under the impact that some of its diesel-fueled cars cheated on vehicle emissions tests, the Swiss government on Saturday banned Volkswagen AG from selling any more cars in the country that are included in what is known as the Euro 5 category.
Earlier this week, VW chief Martin Winterkorn resigned.
On Friday, Matthias Mueller was named as the new boss of Volkswagen – moving from his former role as the chief executive of Porsche.
He said the European Union could change its laws to introduce stricter emissions tests.
“We are now working on new, honest measuring methods in Brussels”, Hendricks told Handelsblatt newspaper in an interview to be published on Monday.
“VW needs to be very open about what has happened, how it was possible that this could happen to make sure that this never happens again in the future”, said a leading Volkswagen shareholder, underlining the importance of the board meeting.
In particular, that science service had warned that results from laboratory testing could be skewed by companies’ use of so-called “defeat devices”, which turn on emissions controls during tests but turn them off when cars are being driven under normal conditions.
A spokesman for Bosch said the company’s dealings with VW were confidential.
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VW is under pressure to act decisively, with its shares plunging since the crisis broke and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urging it to quickly restore confidence in a company held up for generations as a paragon of German engineering prowess.
