The news was announced at closed-door gathering of around 1,000 top managers at its Wolfsburg headquarters late on Monday.
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More than two million of the 11 million cars fitted with Volkswagen’s emissions-cheating software code were Audis.
It comes after Volkswagen was forced to apologise last week when it was discovered it had developed the software in order to trick emission tests in the United States for a few of its diesel models. The software recognized when a vehicle was being tested and reduced the amount of nitrogen oxide emitted, although under road conditions the cars belched out up to 40 times as much of the ozone-causing substance allowed under USA law.
Incoming CEO Matthias Mueller, who took over the Volkswagen helm on Friday, told senior management that technical solutions would be submitted in October.
“We will continue to investigate this deceptive activity on the part of Volkswagen to ensure that these blatant violations do not happen again and consumers can trust the products that they buy”, Pallone and DeGette said in a statement.
If it involves retrofitting urea injection for the affected vehicles, this would mean a tank and filler and attendant equipment would need to be installed.
Included will be USA and European vehicles under the nameplate Volkswagen (5 million cars), Audi (2.1 million), Skoda (1.8 million), and Seat (700,000) of Spain. Audi model lines affected include the A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3 and Q5 ranges.
Volkswagen did not say how the planned refit would make cars to comply with regulations, or how this might affect vehicles’ mileage or efficiency. “We want to assure customers and owners of these models that their automobiles are safe to drive, and we are working to develop a remedy that will meet the expectations of the government agencies”. It appears that VW and Audi are planning to upgrade the software on their vehicles.
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On Tuesday, Europe’s largest automaker said it “will inform customers and arrange the necessary appointments” in the coming weeks to refit the vehicles and bring them in line with emissions standards.
