The company’s head Matthias Mueller has previously apologised for the scandal and said, “My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group”.
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An Audi spokesman said the results were driven by underlying economic factors and incentives from competitors.
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“The downgrade reflects our view that VW’s manipulation of engine emissions exposes the group to material, wide-ranging adverse credit impacts”, said the agency, which had already downgraded Volkswagen in mid-October.
“Volkswagen is working tirelessly on an approved remedy for the affected TDI vehicles”, Mark McNabb, chief operating officer, Volkswagen of America, said in a statement, adding, “During this time we would like to thank our dealers and customers for their continued patience and loyalty”. VW sold 3,907 Tiguans for an 87.7 percent increase over November 2014.
The recall comes after the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) found that diesel cars manufactured in India by Volkswagen having EA189 engine were fitted with the “defeat device”, which may lead to excess nitrogen oxide emission levels in on-road vehicles.
A year ago the diesel cars it has since had to stop selling made up 17% of its total US sales.
This is the second emission scandal detected in India after General Motors recalled almost 1.14 lakh Tavera due to flouting of emission norms in 2013.
That alone is probably responsible for much of the drop: Diesels accounted for 17.2% of VW’s USA sales in November of previous year. Month-over-month, sales fell 9.0 per cent.
VW has a plan for fixing the roughly 567,000 vehicles in the U.S. that contain the emissions-cheating software, and has submitted it to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resource Board (CARB) for review.
Unnamed sources have told Reuters that the US Department of Justice is now examining whether the automotive supplier knew of or participated in Volkswagen’s scheme to cheat its way past emissions testing for some of its diesel engined cars. Doyle says VW, Audi and Porsche incentives were collectively up 27% in November compared to the year before to an average $3,747 per vehicle, more than quadruple the rise in the auto industry as a whole.
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Audi posted a modest sales gain in November despite being associated with the emissions crisis over the past several months. The government says another 85,000 six-cylinder diesels also had cheating software.
