Citing German privacy laws, Volkswagen has refused to provide emails or other communications among its executives to attorneys general in the United States, impeding US investigations into the company’s emissions-cheating scandal, according to officials in several states. But it’s among the 11 million cars affected but faulty diesel emissions totals. Besides almost 600,000 cars in the United States, it is likely to recall over 8.5 million cars in Europe.
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The US Justice Department has sued Volkswagen over emissions-cheating software, potentially exposing the company to more than US$20 billion (NZ$30.1b) in fines for violations of the US Clean Air Act.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil complaint against Volkswagen on Monday as part of the continued consequences.
“The U.S. economy continues to expand and the most important factors that drive demand for new vehicles are in place, so we expect to see a second consecutive year of record industry sales in 2016”, said GM chief economist Mustafa Mohatarem.
The company has hired advisory firm Deloitte and US law firm Jones Day to investigate under what circumstances the company installed software into diesel cars that changed engine settings to reduce emissions whenever vehicles were put through tests. A concrete decision in regards to this is to be made by the end of January.
But the EPA statement said it and CARB will keep insisting that VW come up with “effective appropriate remedies as expeditiously as possible at no cost to owners”.
Speaking about the cars that needed to be fixed, Diess told reporters that in order to fix those older models, the “intrusion into the vehicle will be quite significant”.
Volkswagen’s stock took an additional hit earlier this week upon the announcement of the suit by the DOJ, reflecting the fact that the diesel scandal is far from being settled despite the quick approval of a technical solution for the affected cars in Europe.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), accuses VW of four counts of violating the US Clean Air Act, including tampering with the emissions control system and failing to report violations.
VW is yet to say how it will fix thousands of the cars. That said, chances are good that the repairs will put a dent in diesels’ performance numbers, which could trigger even more lawsuits from owners – not to mention investigations from federal agencies, like the FTC.
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After that apology, Diess went on to talk about some of the upcoming innovations at the vehicle maker, most notably the E-Golf Touch and the BUDD-e, which is a long distance electric microbus.
