The carmaker had previously said Winterkorn was unaware of the illegal software being used to tamper with the nitrogen oxide emissions being released during the quality tests and in its latest statement said it wasn’t sure if he was fully aware of the matter.
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VW made the admissions in a statement announcing it was mounting a vigorous defence against legal action by a group of shareholders. It would do so with the EA189 engine.
The German group admitted publicly last September that the anomalies in USA emissions tests were caused by software created to cheat the tests. This did not initially receive particular attention at the management levels of Volkswagen.
The issue exploded September 18, when the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board disclosed the matter in a call with news media after first learning of emissions irregularities discovered by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) in May 2014.
This study looked at NOx values for two VW models and the fact they “deviated significantly between bench testing and road operation than would be expected under normal circumstances”.
Martin Winterkorn, former Volkswagen CEO.
Winterkorn subsequently received another memo in November 2014 that “referred to a cost framework of approximately 20 million euros for the diesel issue in North America”, it continued.
He also attended a meeting along with chairman Herbert Diess in July 2015 during which the issues related to diesel emissions were discussed at length.
On this meeting, VW adds: “It is not clear whether there participants understood already at this point in time that the change in the software violated USA environmental regulations”. Mr Winterkorn could not be reached. It says its small SUV, the Tiguan, set a Februrary sales record for the month with 3,245 vehicles delivered, up 78.4% from the year before.
VW was told that past violations of this type resulted in sanctions that weren’t that high for a company of VW’s size.
VW cited one unidentified automaker as having paid a $100 million fine in 2014 after certain violations of USA emissions laws.
Volkswagen on Wednesday rejected allegations that it didn’t go public early enough with information on its emissions-rigging scandal.
VW said it had initially assumed that a “manageable” number of vehicles – approximately 500,000 – would be affected by the diesel matter and that fines in a two-digit or lower three-digit million amount would be imposed, “as had been the case in the past in the U.S. in comparable cases involving passenger vehicles”.
Volkswagen said the assessment of the “concrete global risks” took several days.
“After careful examination by internal and external legal experts, the company confirms its belief that its management board duly fulfilled its disclosure obligation under German capital markets law”, Volkswagen said in its statement. Volkswagen said it considered the lawsuits to be without merit.
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Despite this statement clarifying some of the timeline of events, VW says its own investigation into the scandal remains ongoing and is incomplete.
