Volkswagen is facing fines, expensive recalls and lost sales after USA authorities found it had equipped diesel cars with software that turned off emissions controls and pepped up performance when the vehicle was not being tested.
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Volkswagen has said it hired advisory firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd and USA law firm Jones Day to investigate under what circumstances the company installed software into diesel cars that changed engine settings to reduce emissions whenever the vehicle was put through tests.
By contrast, Bharara said Toyota failed to co-operate thoroughly or quickly enough, which he said was one reason for the higher fine and longer investigation.
VW’s top management and labour representatives are in talks to balance spending cuts and future investments as they face multi-billion-euro costs of the manipulations.
Works council chief Bernd Osterloh, in the joint interview with Diess with DPA, said however that bonus payments to workers would not be at last year’s level.
The carmaker’s sales in October showed a few impact from the scandal, with VW brand deliveries down 5.3 percent year-on-year after a 4 percent drop in September. Volkswagen has been trying to limit sales damage in the United States by offering existing Volkswagen owners $2,000 off if they trade their old auto in for a new VW model.
The company says up to 11 million cars have the deceptive software, and adds that it has uncovered “irregularities” in measurements of how much carbon dioxide the cars emit.
Volkswagen announced Friday sales of it cars bearing the VW badge decreased by 5.3 percent in October, with the carmaker shifting 490,000 units globally.
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Separately, Diess said the carmaker’s orders were growing in Germany but falling in southern Europe, Britain and a few overseas markets. Volkswagen would “take care of each individual customer who is affected”, he said.
