European sales for the Volkswagen Group dropped 0.8% last month, while its European market share slipped to 25.2% in October, down from 26.1% in the same month past year.
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Volkswagen has subsequently revealed that beyond the nitrogen oxide scam, it had also understated carbon dioxide emissions of 800,000 vehicles, including petrol cars.
Volkswagen is struggling to cope with the biggest crisis of its history over its admission in September that it had fitted more than 11 million vehicles worldwide with devices created to cheat pollution tests.
Audi has announced a fix to correct the software in some 85,000 vehicles, some of which were initially named in a Notice of Violation (NOV) issued by the EPA at the beginning of the month, Automotive News Europe reports.
The carmaker has set aside 6.7 billion euros (US$7.4 billion) to cover the costs of recalling the relevant vehicles.
“So we agreed to take all of the 3-liter diesel engines, look at the software, recalibrate it and then we’ll resubmit it to the agencies so they’re comfortable with how it’s performing and what it’s doing”, said Stertz. Audi remained silent. Only Porsche seemed contrite, issuing a brief statement that said: “We are surprised to learn this information”.
CARB had said earlier Friday that another 75,000 VW, Audi and Porsche diesels with three-litre engines from the 2009-2016 model years were equipped with suspicious software.
The software is on 2009-13 diesel-powered Audi Q7 SUVs, as well as 2014 and later Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5 and Q7 models.
Prosecutor Birgit Seel said the probe was focused on five Volkswagen employees but did not release their names. The devices further violate the air-quality laws of US.
An EPA spokeswoman told Edmunds that the EPA and CARB continue to investigate VW and Audi.
Audi’s parent company Volkswagen had previously maintained that the emissions scandal was confined to its 2-liter diesel engines, while denying that larger engines manufactured by sister company Audi contained similar defeat devices.
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Europe’s largest vehicle maker is embroiled in a global emissions scandal that involves diesel and gasoline engines and could potentially cost tens of billions of euros in fines and litigation, in addition to installing new software and hardware.
