Hans Dieter Poetsch, chairman of the board of directors of Volkswagen, speaks during a press conference of the German auto manufacturer Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, Germany, Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015.
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It’s almost twelve weeks since United States regulators stunned the world by revealing that Volkswagen had used a “defeat device” to cheat nitrogen oxide emissions tests. It did manage to get a low-priced fix approved in Europe, but analysts tell CNBC Volkswagen might have a harder time getting it approved under the U.S.’ tougher standards.
An internal investigation launched by Volkswagen in the wake of the so-called “Dieselgate” scandal earlier this year showed that it misreport carbon dioxide emissions on just nine models of cars, which account for 0.5 percent of the brand’s total volume.
Poetsch said Volkswagen still believes only a small number of employees were behind the scandal and there are so far no indications that board members were directly involved.
But it has since discovered that “only a small number” of vehicles could have the problem, and the cost will only be “minor”.
“We are talking here not about a one-off mistake but a chain of errors”, he said, adding: “Based on what we know today, it was a very limited group which acted irresponsibly”. They have gathered 102 terabytes of data, equivalent to about 50 million books. Sales in the USA last month tumbled 25 per cent.
“As serious as this crisis is, it is also offering us an opportunity to drive much-need structural change and we will use that opportunity”, Mueller said. “He stated Volkswagen’s finances are robust sufficient in that the company doesn’t have to think about selling any units to deal with the prices of the scandal”. Volkswagen faces at least 6.7 billion euros in diesel recall costs, not including likely regulatory fines and potential damages from hundreds of lawsuits.
There was positive news from the German carmaker on Wednesday with an announcement that only 36,000 out of the 800,000 vehicles initially estimated to have understated Carbon dioxide levels thought to have been actually impacted.
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Each model variant will be retested by a third-party testing facility to verify the results.
