According to Bloomberg’s Christoph Rauwald, VW Group CEO Matthias Mueller told a group of 1,000 company executives on Monday that VW has gained approval to implement a software update for 2.0-litre diesel engines with software installed that’s created to cheat emissions tests.
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The confession marks the conclusion of a slow, 180-degree pivot by Volkswagen.
This announcement comes just a few days after VW and Audi admitted the 3.0-liter diesel engines also violated tailpipe emission laws, emitting as much as nine times the legal limit.
In a statement, Volkswagen said Tuesday that it is “cooperating with the authorities” working on the investigation. “Until this notice, all of our information was that the Porsche Cayenne Diesel is fully compliant”.
“The remedy proposed in the recall must not only fix the violation in question, it must also address the safety, drivability, vehicle durability and fuel efficiency of the cars involved”, the CARB said in a statement.
The automaker says it is committed to finding quick and uncomplicated solutions to fix the cars, but until then, no V6 3-liter TDI diesel engine vehicles will be sold.
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This engine was developed by Audi and is used in U.S. Audi models A6, A7, A8, Q5, and Q7 from model year 2009 onwards. While the company will try to conduct a recall that’s cheap and simple, it admits that it will cost “in the mid-double-digit millions of euros”. The device used for temperature conditioning “is regarded as a defeat device according to applicable U.S. law”, Audi said in a press release. Earlier this month the regulators accused VW of installing the so-called “defeat device” software on about 10,000 cars from the 2014 through 2016 model years, in violation of the Clean Air Act. Until the software is revised, the sales hold that has been put on new Audi diesel vehicles will remain in place. It said it will announce the result in April after probing emissions levels in diesel cars sold by five local auto companies and 11 imported brands. “One AECD is responsible for “temperature conditioning of the exhaust-gas cleaning system”, another is created to avoid “deposits on the Ad-Blue metering valve“, while the last one prevents “[hydrocarbon] poisioning of the SCR catalyst”.
