“Based on the current situation, Volkswagen Group India will continue the production and sales of the cars with EA 189 engines in India”, the company said. According to Volkswagen, the sales crash is exclusively due to the freeze on selling any 2.0-liter TDI models and the 3.0-liter TDI-powered Touareg, and this is somewhat validated by the fact that Tiguan sales jumped 88 percent, Golf GTI sales increased 18 percent, and the e-Golf’s sales up over 300 percent.
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In addition to its observations, findings and outlines of possible solutions on the EA 189 engines to the Government of India and ARAI, Volkswagen Group India has also presented its reasons for why it believes that its cars are not equipped with the infamous “defeat device”.
ARAI carried out random tests on Volkswagen cars and found significant variations in on-road emission levels compared to laboratory test results in the case of diesel variants of six of its vehicle models such as Polo, Vento, Jetta, Audi A4, Audi A6 and Skoda Octavia.
“Once approved from the competent authorities, the respective brands of the Volkswagen Group in India will carry out necessary actions in a step-wise manner”, it said.
Calling emission test cheating by Volkswagen as a “well thought-out crime”, the government on Wednesday said all diesel passenger vehicles in India will come under scanner in the next six months to check their compliance with norms. “During this time we would like to thank our dealers and customers for their continued patience and loyalty”, stated Mark McNabb, chief operating officer, Volkswagen of America. The existing installed software does not affect the handling, technical safety or roadworthiness of the cars. “All technical measures will be implemented as soon as they are available”.
The company said it remains “fully committed” to the Indian market and “will not deviate from its future planned investments, product plans and launches”. The voluntary stop-sales were issued in light of notices received by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) regarding emissions compliance.
The automaker sold 5,462 TDI diesel vehicles in November 2014, a spokeswoman told AFP.
The ARAI is a research association formed between the automotive industry and the ministry of heavy industries.
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Several countries around the world and Europe had started independent inquiries to find out whether the fudging practice also took place there.
