The dirty cloud hanging over Volkswagen continues to grow.
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This is the first time that petrol-driven vehicles have been dragged into the emissions scandal, and so has the super-premium brand Porsche.
Volkswagen appears very concerned about all of the issues revealed by the emissions scandal.
That recall is for cars with variants of the EA 189 diesel engine built to the “Euro 5” emissions standard.
Volkswagen admitted installing this software in eleven million vehicles around the world this September and triggered a huge regulatory crisis that involved a number of government investigations and lawsuits and has the potential of costing them billions of dollars.
The new EPA accusation means Volkswagen will probably be locked in protracted litigation and could result in costly remediation, both in fines and more restrictions on its activities in the future, Moody’s said.
Late Tuesday, VW said it also had found “unexplained inconsistencies” in emissions from a few of its vehicles of carbon dioxide.
“VW is leaving us all speechless”, said Arndt Ellinghorst of banking advisory firm Evercore ISI after the disclosure about the smaller engines.
This time, the emissions violations affect cars from the 2014 through the 2016 model years.
In a related development, the Narendra Modi government said it had made a decision to issue a show-cause notice to Volkswagen India after tests showed a significant variation between on-road emission levels and readings thrown up during vehicle certification tests in the laboratory.
The emissions scandal widened on Tuesday with the EPA accusing the company of concealing the level of nitrogen oxide emissions during tests with the help of a special device fitted on its larger 3.0 litre diesel engines used in large sports vehicles. German officials say 98,000 have gas engines.
“VW has once again failed its obligation to comply with the law that protects the air for all Americans”, said Cynthia Giles, EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. It’s also draining Volkswagen’s treasury.
This new revelation will add $2.2 billion to VW’s costs arising from the growing scandal. But that’s likely to rise as lawsuits mount.
The shares of the carmaker declined 4.02 euros, or 4 percent, to 96.43 euros at 3:42 p.m.in Frankfurt.
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It is yet to say if it will pay compensation to owners. As such, a recall for the 800,000 cars is not now planned. However it reiterated that they need have no concerns over their cars’ safety.
