The company has been unable halt the flow of bad news since mid-September, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Volkswagen had installed software on 482,000 cars with small diesel engines that enabled them to cheat on emissions tests for one pollutant, nitrogen oxide.
Advertisement
Germany’s Volkswagen, already reeling from the fallout of cheating on US emissions tests for nitrogen oxide, said Tuesday that an internal investigation has revealed “unexplained inconsistencies” in the carbon dioxide emissions from 800,000 of its vehicles – a development it said could cost the company another 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion).
AECDs were used in seven models of the Audi, Porsche and VW brands in model years 2014 through 2016, of which five were Audis, VW said.
The shares of the carmaker declined 4.02 euros, or 4 percent, to 96.43 euros at 3:42 p.m.in Frankfurt.
VW has acknowledged that software that shuts off smog-reducing equipment during regular driving but turns it on during regulatory tests was installed on 11 million vehicles.
This is the first time that petrol-driven vehicles have been dragged into the emissions scandal, and so has the super-premium brand Porsche.
“The Council requested Volkswagen Nigeria to within seven days of the receipt of its letter make available to it the number of affected vehicles in Nigeria, if any, steps taken to inform and sensitize consumers and efforts being made to facilitate quick recall of such vehicles in the country”.
The new EPA accusation means Volkswagen will probably be locked in protracted litigation and could result in costly remediation, both in fines and more restrictions on its activities in the future, Moody’s said.
The government’s action followed a VW statement on Tuesday that it had understated the level of carbon dioxide emissions in 800,000 cars sold mainly in Europe, and consequently their fuel usage. The cars have 1.8-liter and 2-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engines.
Advertisement
As noted previously, though the affected diesel vehicles do offend EPA regulations, the vehicles remain safe to drive. The “defeat devices bypass, defeat or render inoperative elements of the vehicles’ emissions control system”, said the EPA. Volkswagen lost 1.67 billion euros ($1.83 billion) in the third quarter, due largely to recall costs, and it warned that 2015 operating profit would fall significantly. “I do think it is apparent that they’re struggling to get their arms around… what appears to be a pretty significant problem”, spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily briefing.
