The VW emissions scandal revealed that the company installed engine software that directed the engine to emit the legal level of emissions when tested, but the German cars really released up to 35 times the allowed levels of nitrous oxides during daily driving.
Advertisement
A few industry experts and analysts said several versions of the defeat device raised the possibility that a range of employees were involved. Software technicians would have needed regular funding and knowledge of engine programs, Reuters reports.
Recalls to rectify affected models will kick off in the first quarter of 2016, but the issue of compensation has not been discussed officially by VW as yet. “VW had a chance to fix it, and yet they continued to try and hide the fact they had a defeat device”.
“VW would have had to reconfigure the software for each generation of engines”, said the USA official close to an ongoing investigation into VW. From around 2012, it introduced a more sophisticated and expensive system called Selective Catalytic Reduction.
Investigators searched the company’s main office in Villers-Cotterets in northern France on Friday, as well as another office near Paris, seizing documents and computer hardware in the process, the source added. A number of private homes was also searched as part of the German government’s investigation. Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman at the prosecutor’s office stated that the inquiry will held to look into the entity’s operations over charges of “aggravated deception”.
Advertisement
Volkswagen had said it would recall 8.5 million vehicles in Europe following the discovery of cheat software used to manipulate environmental tests. Leslie Peltier, spokeswoman for Volkswagen France, confirmed the searches, stating that the company is fully cooperating with the French authorities, reported Fox News. According to the Prophet poll, 60 pc of people interviewed didn’t see any long-term damage to the “Made in Germany” label.
