South Korea is the first country after the United States to announce measures based on it own testing to address the diesel emissions scandal that has engulfed Europe’s biggest auto manufacturer.
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The California Air Resources Board is ordering Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche to draft an expanded recall plan for 3.0-liter vehicles.
VW stunned the world with its admission then that it had fitted 11m diesel vehicles with software “defeat devices” created to cheat nitrogen oxide emissions tests.
The Audi suspensions take the number of officials confirmed to have been put on leave across VW as a result of its internal investigations to eight, including at least six senior individuals.
CARB gave Volkswagen AG a full 45 business days to call back its models featuring software that the regulators think can distort emissions tests.
The ministry said emissions from the Tiguan significantly increased during a road test, which is what was found in US tests earlier.
Associated Press cited South Korean Ministry of Environment director Hong Dong Gon as saying that the ministry is planning to investigate 30,000 other Volkswagen diesel cars which did not show signs of emissions cheating. VW is also promising a similar technical solution for affected 1.2-liter diesel engines, which will be delivered to the KBA before the end of November 2015.
Volkswagen Korea said it will start proceedings for the recall as soon as possible. This included 482,000 US cars with software that allowed them to emit up to 40 times legally allowable levels by only activating emissions controls during laboratory testing.
In Germany, environmental protection groups accused authorities, including the German Transport Ministry, of long tolerating misconstrued listings of nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide and fine particle emissions to the detriment of people such as asthma sufferers as well as the environemnt.
But the newly-appointed managing director of Volkswagen in Australia, former Porsche executive Michael Bartsch, told News Corp no decision had been made on what compensation – if any – would be offered to local owners.
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Volkswagen says it will take less than an hour to bring 1.6 and 2.0 liter turbodiesel engines in Europe into line with emissions rules.
