On Monday, USA environmental regulators revealed that the software is also installed in 3.0 liter engines featured in luxury sport utility vehicles from Porsche and Audi, including Porsche Cayenne and VW Touareg sport utility vehicles as well as larger sedans and the Q5 SUV from Audi.
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The company has been unable halt the flow of bad news since mid-September, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Volkswagen had installed software on 482,000 cars that enabled them to cheat on emissions tests for nitrogen oxide, a pollutant that contributes to smog and respiratory problems.
JUST 24 hours after USA authorities accused Volkswagen of fitting nitrogen oxide (NOx) defeat devices to its 3.0-litre, six-cylinder diesel engines – a charge it rejects – the auto maker itself has reported finding “irregularities” in the carbon dioxide emissions levels of a few of its engines. In a statement released following the notice, Volkswagen still maintains the V6 diesels do not contain defeat devices, however VW, Porsche, and Audi have issued a stop-sale on these vehicles in North America, as well as 2013 to 2015 models of the Q7. The other method, as VW has shown us, is to cheat on the emissions testing. Company officials in the United States said the suspension would last at least until it completes its review of the EPA’s test results, and they stressed that the tactic doesn’t necessarily mean it believes that even more cars are likely to have the illegal software.
Autodata has also revealed VW also had to give discounts on its vehicles to boost sales in October.
It was not immediately clear whether the 800,000 vehicles announced Tuesday with the newly discovered carbon dioxide emission problems were among those already affected.
Germany reportedly plans to retest all Volkswagen models to determine their actual emissions levels as the automaker grapples with a global scandal over how it masked carbon-dioxide emissions from millions of its cars. Worldwide, VW says, as many as 11 million of its vehicles will need to be recalled and refitted with appropriate software.
Amid concerns over the escalating cost of the crisis, the German carmaker’s ordinary shares slid 8.4 percent to 101.70 euros in late afternoon trading in Europe.
Most of the 800,000 cars affected by the latest disclosure had diesel engines such as its top-selling Golf, Audi’s A3 hatchback and the Skoda Octavia.
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Further pressure was piled on the company as credit agency Moody’s downgraded its rating. The company had understated the fuel consumption of these vehicles that are sold in Europe.
