Volkswagen could compensate owners of diesel-powered cars that emit high levels of pollutants, possibly by paying them for the lost value of their vehicles, the company’s top US executive said Thursday. Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican, said he owns one of the diesel cars included in the scandal.
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The cheating has exposed the German automaker to Environmental Protection Agency fines of up to $18 billion, a U.S. Justice Department criminal probe, consumer lawsuits and investigations in Europe.
The announcement comes after Audi removed several EA189 models from sale last Saturday, including A4, A5 and Q5 vehicles that had been certified to the EU5 emissions standard. The EPA and California Air Resources Board are investigating “the nature and purpose” of the device, she said. The automaker finally admitted last month it was using a so-called “defeat device” to bypass EPA emission standards for clean air. The Generation 2 fix “will be most probably a software solution”, Horn told the committee.
Grundler said the agency has pressed VW to propose a range of options for each generation of the engine, and says he expects to see a proposal for at least the 2012-14 Passat TDI’s as early as next week.
But he said he did not know about the manipulative software until September3, about two weeks before the EPA disclosed the matter.
Meanwhile, German public prosecutors have searched Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg headquarters as part of their investigation into the emissions scandal.
Kelley Blue Book calculated that buying back all the US diesel vehicles embroiled in the scandal would cost the company about $7 billion.
The deactivation of emissions controls during normal driving can improve a diesel-fueled car’s performance, experts say.
“To my understanding this was not a corporate decision, this was something individuals did”, Horn said, adding that he felt personally deceived.
“It was a couple of software engineers that put this in for whatever reasons”. “This was not a corporate decision, to the best of my knowledge”, said Horn. Horn added that he’s “very confident” no additional diesel cars in the US have the problem.
The firm said, however, the limited impact was due to sellers of affected vehicles holding off from lowering prices, and instead preferring to delay sales in the hope the scandal would blow over. These funds give the dealers financial flexibility, Horn said, and will allow them to solve “the most urgent customer cases”.
A year later, VW admitted 11 million vehicles worldwide had software installed that rendered official emissions tests worthless. But the fixes might affect performance, including a one-or-two mile-per-hour drop in top speed.
“On behalf of our company, and my colleagues in Germany, I would like to offer a true apology for Volkswagen’s use of a software program that served to defeat the regular emissions testing regime”, said Michael Horn, president of Volkswagen Group of America in a hearing held by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
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If so, that’s not an excuse, Horn said, calling the entire episode “deeply troubling”.
