As debates over the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, spark protests in Germany, Volkswagen is preparing to embark on one of the biggest recalls in European automotive history.
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Earlier this week, the weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported that “at least 30 people” were involved in the deception. It said his decision to quit was not related to the scandal over the diesel engines.
The agency is still waiting on Volkswagen to provide information on vehicles with Gen 1 emissions controls, Allen said.
“We are delighted that Dr. Hohmann-Dennhardt has agreed to take on this responsible task and that we can build on her outstanding competence and experience”, Volkswagen chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said in a statement. And because the American standards for smog-causing oxides of nitrogen, as well as for particulate emissions, are tougher than in Europe, VW insiders have said they expect they will have to modify engine hardware, as well. Both figures represented a decline of 1.5 percent compared with the corresponding period a year earlier. The Audi brand, which has also been implicated in the scandal, grew 10 per cent in September to outpace the overall market.
VW Group sales, comprising all VW brands including its luxury marquees, rose by 8.4 percent in the European Union, while the mass-market VW brand most implicated in the scandal, saw sales rise 6.6 percent, ACEA said.
Volkswagen’s group sales fell 44 percent in Brazil and 26 percent in Russian Federation.
It came as the firm’s chief executive, Mathias Mueller, expressed confidence that the carmaker would bounce back from the emissions controversy in “two to three years”.
Already from the beginning of October, every VW customer had been able to use the company’s website to check whether their vehicle was affected, simply by typing in the car’s number.
The Federal Motor Transport Authority, or KBA, demanded the recall after reviewing proposals Volkswagen filed last week to fix cars fitted with software created to cheat on pollution tests, German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said yesterday in Berlin. The automaker has set aside over $7 billion (directly converted, about £4.5 billion or AU$9.5 billion) to pay for these repairs, but many estimate it will cost several times more than that, considering there are 11 million or so rigged diesels on the road.
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Following Germany’s move, the European Commission on Friday stressed that each member state would be expected to monitor closely if Volkswagen recalls affected vehicles on their (respective) territories.
