Last month, the company said about 11 million of its vehicles worldwide that carried its older EA 189 diesel engine containing the software were banned.
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EPA has stopped sales of new Volkswagen cars until it is clear that the new cars comply with United States environment standards.
Volkswagen will freeze managerial promotions next year at its VW division as part of a savings drive to help meet the cost of a scandal over diesel emissions tests, a German business magazine reported on Saturday. The suspended executives reportedly include Richard Dorenkamp, former head of VW’s technical development for low emission engines, Falko Rudolph, the former head of diesel engine development and Ulrich Hackenberg, an Audi board member. Its forecast is a sign that surging sales of the German automaker’s luxury brands aren’t making up for a slowdown for the Volkswagen brand.
The carmaker said in a brief statement that there was no banned software built into vehicles with its latest EA 288 Euro 6 diesel engine, adding that this had been confirmed by Germany’s KBA automotive regulator.
German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt will travel to Washington on Monday to discuss the Volkswagen emissions scandal with Anthony Foxx, his US counterpart, among others, two German transport ministry sources said.
That same day, The New York Times published a front-page article entitled “U.S. Orders Major VW Recall Over Emissions Test Trickery”. Those models need hardware changes, a more costly upgrade than the software changes needed for other affected vehicles.
In the meantime, Volkswagen has also addressed its diesel plans for the immediate future.
“The way this is all coming out…is wonderful”, Bernstein analyst Max Warburton said. It also admitted that more than 10 million cars sold globally might be equipped with the “defeat device”. No vehicles manufactured by VW’s joint ventures with China FAW Group Corp and SAIC Motor Corp are involved in the recall.
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Volkswagen shares rebounded 3.39 percent to 103,80 euros on Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index which closed up 2.48 percent overall on hints of more economic stimulus by the European Central Bank.
