Reuters reports that Volkswagen’s supervisory board is under enormous pressure to find out who is responsible for installing the “defeat device” software, which cheats lab tests for emissions in Type EA 189 diesel engines.
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Up to 11 million vehicles around the world are said to be rigged with emissions cheating software – 8 million of which are in Europe.
In a speech to 20,000 staff at the group’s Wolfsburg headquarters, Matthias Mueller said all planned investments would be reviewed and vowed to try to prevent lay-offs as the company struggles with the deepest crisis in its history.
As many as 11 million vehicles worldwide may be affected. To be perfectly frank: “this will not be a painless process”.
VW has vowed to get to the bottom of the scandal with an internal probe led by a team of U.S. lawyers.
He said Volkswagen would have to become smaller and less centralised, adding that every model and brand would be scrutinised for its contribution to the company.
Hans Dieter Poetsch’s first board meeting as chairman of Volkswagen today could turn out to be his most important, coming just hours before a deadline set by German regulators and testimony by the company’s top United States executive in Congress.
All customers in Ireland of Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, SEAT and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles can check on this website for themselves whether the emissions characteristics of their vehicles need to be corrected.
“The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is now investigating whether Volkswagen and Audi exposed consumers to false, misleading or deceptive representations”, said the Minister for Territories, Local Government and Major Projects, Paul Fletcher. Future investments in plant, technology and vehicles would be put “under scrutiny”, he told staff. He also assured workers that the company would do everything it possibly could to keep jobs secure. VW has already set aside 6.5 billion euros (about $7.3 billion) to fix the cars. But the damage to its reputation will be harder to quantify in the longer term. Witter was the former CEO of the Volkswagen Financial Services unit.
It then switches off this mode when the auto is on the road.
Mueller said he had seen that figure only in the press.
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Critics have taken aim at Volkswagen for what they say is its slow response in Australia and elsewhere to the scandal. As it said: “If VW can’t identify who knew what, aggressive lawyers may do so”. The cheat devices give false readings on nitrogen oxide emissions when tested.
