In the latest fallout from the scandal, a Dutch distributor suspended sales of Volkswagen cars while Swiss authorities said there were almost 130,000 cars with the devices in the Alpine nation.
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It hasn’t been a good week for Volkswagen A.G. More than 175 class actions in 31 states have been filed against the automaker over the emissions scandal that erupted last month.
A UK Department for Transport spokeswoman said: “Our priority is to protect the public and give them full confidence in diesel tests”.
Patrick McGuire, the Thompsons partner in charge of mass litigation, said: “Since news of this scandal first emerged we have taken hundreds of calls from concerned and in many cases furious VW and Audi owners”.
Nearly two weeks after confirming 11 million vehicles around the world had been fitted with so-called “defeat devices”, the German automaker and subsidiary Audi have not provided details of the models or where they have been sold.
Every British customer who has an EA 189 EU5 engine in their vehicle will have it “corrected in the near future” free-of-charge, Volkswagen said.
The report, which cited a transport ministry document obtained by the newspaper, said the emissions tests would probably begin in about 10 days, with results set to be published by May next year.
To clarify further which cars are impacted, the company goes on to state: “The 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre TDI engine certified according to the new EU6 emission standard are not affected”. The wider concerns expressed by a few include the impact on the reputation of the entire German automotive industry, and on the future of diesel engines in passenger cars.
“We understand that the USA want to challenge the leadership role that the European manufacturers have taken globally in this technology”, said the letter, seen by Reuters, referring to diesel cars.
The EPA will test one of each of the 28 diesel models now on the roads using rental cars or cars obtained from consumers.
And most states do not require owners of diesel cars to submit them to an emissions test to get a auto registration renewed.
Meanwhile in Greece, Volkswagen importer Kosmocar on Friday said over 7,200 VWs and over 1,800 Audis are “exclusively equipped with EA189 Diesel engines”, which has the pollution-cheating software.
A few advocacy groups have argued that Volkswagen should be forced to pay a steep price for environmental damage caused by its actions.
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Now whether that means forcing VW to compensate owners for increased taxation costs once the real emissions of the defeat device cars are discovered, or whether it means the tax man allowing the affected cars to retain their existing certification levels for tax purposes, we’re not sure.
