The cars meet official USA and European standards when undergoing tests, but when on the road, the devices switch off and the cars emit up to 40 times the permitted level of poisonous nitrogen oxide gases.
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Volkswagen was keen to point out that this issue does not affect Golf, Jetta and Passat models that have been sold in the US, though it is still a worrying development that is likely to add uncertainty to emissions figures advertised on gasoline-engined vehicles across all VW AG brands.
Volkswagen said on Friday that deliveries of new vehicles fell to 490,000 units in October for its namesake brand, down from 517,400 in the same month a year ago.
German automaker Volkswagen AG is in talks with lenders to put together a short-term financing plan to ensure it has adequate liquidity to cover fines and other expenses from the emissions scandal, people close to the matter told Bloomberg.
Despite the October downshift, the figures still confirmed an upward auto market trend that has been unbroken for 26 months, the ACEA said.
Volkswagen’s European sales and market share have dropped in the brand’s first full month of trading since its emissions scandal was revealed.
Volkswagen’s global sales fell 5.4 per cent year-on-year last month, though United Kingdom registrations for the German brand were down 9.84 per cent in October.
Volkswagen has suffered greatly as a result of the emissions scandal, which is alleged to have affected more about 11 million of the company’s vehicles.
It says about 11 million cars worldwide have the software.
French automakers PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault underperformed the market, with their sales dipping 1.5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.
In its first significant marketing response to the emissions scandal, Volkswagen of America on Sunday will begin running ads in major USA newspapers declaring that “we’re working to make things right”, while plugging a customer goodwill program.
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“Thanks to the continued positive economic environment, low financing costs, low fuel prices and high discounts, the European new vehicle market will remain on the growth track in the mid-term-though at lower rates of growth than in the first three quarters of this year”, he said.
