Michael Horn, president and CEO of Volkswagen (VW) Group of America, will confirm he knew of the company’s emission rigging issues as early as spring 2014, according to a statement released ahead of a congressional inquiry on Thursday.
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He also said that Volkswagen told USA authorities about the so-called “defeat device” in September of this year.
“We understand the disappointment and frustration felt by our customers, dealers and partners in Australia and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause”, Volkswagen Group Australia managing director John White said.
The company had “broken the trust of our customers, dealerships, and employees, as well as the public and regulators”, he said in the prepared testimony, promising those responsible would be held accountable.
On Tuesday, the chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee said they were investigating VW’s certification of the diesel vehicles for federal tax subsidies. “All the cars should be fixed by the end of 2016”, Müller told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Former employees said engineers were under pressure from management at the time to fix a problem that prevented VW from selling certain diesels in the U.S.
That admission is about 18 months before Volkswagen admitted to USA regulators it used software to cheat tests, and may fuel criticism the vehicle company has not acted quickly or honestly enough to remedy its wrongdoing.
The executive will give evidence to the House Energy committee and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations before being questioned by the politicians about the scandal, which affects half a million cars in the US.
The EPA also is trying to determine “the economic benefit to VW” of tricking the emissions tests and to “pursue appropriate penalties”, Grundler said. The company has said throughout the ordeal that the cars are safe to drive, and it appears executives are confident that its cars can be refitted to pass the EPA-mandated emissions tests.
The company is now working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board on a software update that would modify those cars-after which it will resubmit them for certification.
Also scheduled to testify Thursday are two officials at the EPA who oversee emissions testing and compliance with clean air rules. The same cars had met emissions standards when tested in the lab.
If that is true, that means that VW TDI cars on the road right now that can’t pass emissions may need significant work to pass without the defeat device in place.
The software in the cars’ engine-control computers determined when dynamometer tests were under way.
But when asked if that meant there was no larger circle of fraudulent behaviour, he said the company was “now clarifying the responsibilities in detail” and that “thoroughness comes before speed”.
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The committee said a few of the hundreds of thousands of Volkswagen vehicles sold in the USA that included defeat devices could have been purchased using the Alternative Motor Vehicle Credit, which was created for qualifying fuel-efficient vehicles.
