The company found the additional problem as it investigated revelations that up to 11 million of its vehicles had software that allowed them to deceive emissions testers.
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This latest turn of events may come as little surprise to motorists who regularly report huge differences between their car’s actual fuel consumption figures, and therefore their Carbon dioxide emissions, and those claimed by vehicle makers in the official tests.
Volkswagen has chose to stop sales of its diesel vehicles in the United States and Canada.
But the company rebuffed EPA’s fresh allegations regarding the Audi models, the Porsche Cayenne and the VW Touareg, saying in a statement Monday that it would “clarify this matter” for the EPA.
Brad Stertz, spokesman for Audi said during an interview that his company was working together with the EPA and CARB to see the emission results and understand how they arrived at the conclusion they did. When tested with a new procedure created to sidestep the devices, the EPA says these engines produced nitrous oxide levels up to nine times the EPA standard.
But the agency said that Volkswagen’s business and financial strength give it room to shore up its cash flow for unplanned costs, and so justify the medium investment grade credit rating of A2.
The company is already facing charges of fitting software to its diesel cars to hide emissions during testing.
VW said the issue mainly affected diesel cars. Sales by 56% were given in the USA on VW vehicles. VW was forced to issue a massive recall of about 8.5 million vehicles, and the company will likely face lawsuits.
The fallout from Volkswagen’s emissions-cheating scandal intensified Wednesday, as investors bailed out and European regulators pressured VW to quickly disclose the findings of an internal investigation. “It’s a painful process, but there is no alternative”, he said.
The latest developments followed Volkswagen’s admission Tuesday that it had understated the carbon dioxide emissions for 800,000 cars, widening the scope of the scandal.
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“Porsche Cars North America, Inc. today decided, in view of the unexpected US EPA notice received yesterday, to voluntarily discontinue sales of model year 2014 through 2016 Porsche Cayenne Diesel vehicles until further notice”, the company said in a statement.
