America’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had said VW software allowed six-cylinder diesel engines to cheat on pollution tests on cars being made past year.
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Subsequently, on November 2, 2015, EPA charged VW with installing similar devices on certain VW, Audi, and Porsche vehicles from model years 2014, 2015, and 2016 that were equipped with larger, 3.0 liter diesel engines.
Volkswagen and Audi officials said in a meeting with the EPA on Thursday that the equipment was actually present in models going back to 2009, the agency said.
Leaders of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee said the panel’s investigation into the automaker will continue. Germany’s motor transport agency is ordering a mandatory recall of Volkswagen cars sold with software that enabled them to evade diesel emissions testing.
The Volkswagen emissions scandal deepened today after the vehicle manufacturer told US regulators it involves models from 2009 – widening the scope of the probe by five years.
The new disclosure covers a total of 85,000 vehicles, the EPA said, including the diesel Audi 2016 Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L, Q5, Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touraeg. It did not say how many additional cars had the software.
VW is due to submit plans to USA regulators for dealing with vehicles affected by its emissions cheating.
“What we definitely won’t do is make cuts at the expense of our future”, said Mueller.
CARB and EPA plan another meeting with senior VW officials to discuss the issue for the first week of December. “We will strictly prioritize all planned investments… anything that is not absolutely necessary will be cancelled or postponed”. A few analysts have long urged VW to reduce spending and become more efficient, with profit margins at its mass-market namesake brand lagging those at rivals.
VW has denied that but Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board in Los Angeles, told Reuters that regulators repeatedly saw the engines cycle through tests with a relatively low amount of emissions, only to see an increase in pollution a couple of seconds later.
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VW’s preference shares, down about a third since the crisis broke, were up 1.5 per cent to 107.40 euros at 1355 GMT. Audi and Volkswagen apparently followed suit, telling dealers to hold models that are now the subject of EPA scrutiny, according to Automotive News (subscription required).
