But the USA has more rigorous emissions regulations than the European Union, and Volkswagen feared its cars wouldn’t pass tests.
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Essentially, VW now faces three potentially costly problems: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may not accept the cheap fixes; U.S. litigation costs may mount; and sales, primarily in English-speaking countries, may suffer due to an erosion of trust. Cooperation with those authorities was described as “excellent”.
Volkswagen has replaced six executives since the beginning of the year and has switched leadership of seven of its dozen brands, which include Audi, other luxury marques Porsche and Bentley, as well as mass-market brands VW, Seat and Skoda.
Volkswagen Group said a probe into false Carbon dioxide emissions data and fuel usage affects far fewer vehicles than originally thought.
“It will be important to maintain that level of exchange with the public in coming months to prove they’re serious about transparency”.
In November, deliveries by the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand in the Western Europe region rose by a total of 2.4 percent.
Potsch and Matthias Mueller, chief executive of Volkswagen, presented the results of a continuing inquiry. He didn’t announce any big job cuts and said there was no need for further sales forecast revisions. The brand continued its growth in Germany, Italy and Spain. Fraud was committed. So, firing employees and paying fines aren’t enough.
“We need different solutions for different engines and variants”, Mr Muller said. The company says it has suspended nine people related to the scandal but won’t name them yet because its internal investigation is ongoing. But I will be optimistic and quite confident looking into the future.
Fending off rumours the auto manufacturer planned to sell off brands to pay for recalls and legal suits, Mr Muller said there were “no plans to sell off assets”. Poetsch said both an internal investigation and an independent one by a US law firm are making progress on that front.
There was “no evidence to suggest that supervisory board members or management board members are implicated”, Poetsch said.
“In terms of a compensation package our customers are always at the focus of our attention, and we are working on an overall package for all affected markets”, Mr Muller said.
Mueller said it was relatively simple and low-priced to fix the affected cars, and he was often asked why they had not done so in the first place.
“Looking back, we regrettably have to recognize that the developers involved in the EA 189 project quite simply could not find a way to meet the tougher NOx limits in the United States by permissible means, or at least they could not find a way they felt at the time to be meaningful and that fitted the timeframe and the budget they had been given”, Poetsch said.
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“We are doing everything to overcome the current situation, but we will not allow the crisis to paralyse us”.
