In addition, VW Group announced that the EPA and the California Air Resources Board have allowed the company to revise the software in 85,000 larger 3.0-liter, TDI-engined cars.
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The confession marks the conclusion of a slow, 180-degree pivot by Volkswagen.
In its statement today, Audi said that it failed to disclose three emissions control software functions, known as auxiliary emissions control devices, to the agencies as required by USA law. “Until this notice, all of our information was that the Porsche Cayenne Diesel is fully compliant”.
Leaders of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee said the panel’s investigation into the automaker will continue.
Of more than 11 million cars programmed to cheat on emissions tests, the overwhelming majority are in Europe.
The vehicles are the Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5, and Q7 equipped with V6 diesel engines from the 2009 model year and later.
The issue with the 3.0-liter engines is not the same as the one afflicting the 2.0-liter engines, Audi said in a statement.
2 accused VW of putting the software on about 10,000 Volkswagen and Audi vehicles with 3-liter engines from the 2014 through 2016 model years. The EPA has suggested that software controlling “temperature conditioning of the exhaust gas cleaning system” (a sentence that only vaguely makes sense even to our auto-obsessed brains) is an emissions control defeat defeat device under US environmental law.
Last week, representatives of Volkswagen and its Audi division met with officials from the Environmental Protection Agency to present proposals for making cars in the United States compliant with clean air rules.
VW has reportedly set aside €6,7 billion (R100,2 billion) to cover the costs of recalling the vehicles and a further €2 billion (R29,9 billion) for compensation payouts.
Volkswagen said repairs for cars with rigged diesel engines have been approved for more than 90 percent of the affected vehicles in Europe in a sign that the company is making progress in its effort to overcome the two- month-old emissions crisis.
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Volkswagen will cut 1 billion euros (NZD $1.62 billion) from its 2016 budget as its emissions scandal expands to include tens of thousands more USA vehicles.
