That smaller engine is at the heart of revelations that VW had built a cheat into its popular small diesel in order to fake emissions rule compliance. They include the 2013 Audi Q7, the 2014-2015 Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5 and Q7 and the 2013-2016 Volkswagen Touareg.
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Dobrindt also said that about 200,000 of the 800,000 vehicles involved are in Germany and that he will force the company to pay for the extra auto taxes that will come from the higher emissions.
The tally of vehicles, which is now nudging 12 million globally and with VW setting aside a total of $14 billion to fix it, also hints that a few of Volkswagen’s petrol engines may have understated fuel use and emissions figures.
Besides these problems, VW said November 3 that its own testing found “irregularities” in an additional 800,000 of its cars worldwide, although none of these cars are sold in the United States.
In light of the stop sale, Porsche Cars Canada said, “We are working intensively to resolve this matter as soon as possible”. The cars were sold under the Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT and Skoda brands, most in Europe and none in the U.S.
If the prosecutors do decide to launch a formal inquiry into the Carbon dioxide allegations, it will be completely separate from the other investigation into the diesel engine manipulation, the spokeswoman said.
Still reeling from new accusations this week by US and California authorities about emission control defeat devices in its diesel vehicle fleet, Volkswagen announced yesterday that hundreds of thousands of its vehicles, including a few with gasoline engines, may be emitting more carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution than advertised.
Prosecutors in Braunschweig are already looking into VW’s diesel products, and will examine the newly disclosed information with a decision on a new investigation coming by next week, spokesman Klaus Ziehe said by phone Thursday.
The issue mainly affects diesels, but could also include petrol models. Porsche called them “unexpected”, and said that it believes the Cayenne Diesel was never out of compliance with emissions rules.
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The German automaker installed software created to defeat the tests on VW, Porsche and Audi vehicles from the 2014 to 2016 model years with six-cylinder diesel engines, according to the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board.
