Volkswagen Group has reportedly halted United States sales of vehicles with 3.0-liter TDI diesel engines, affecting models from the Audi, VW and Porsche brands.
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The company has been unable halt the flow of bad news since mid-September, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Volkswagen had installed software on 482,000 cars with small diesel engines that enabled them to cheat on emissions tests for one pollutant, nitrogen oxide.
German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Wednesday his department will oversee a retest of both gasoline- and diesel-powered Volkswagen brands, including Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and Seat, to gauge their true carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions, according to Reuters. They include the 2013 Audi Q7, the 2014-2015 Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5 and Q7 and the 2013-2016 Volkswagen Touareg.
Then on Wednesday, Porsche Cars Canada made a decision to voluntarily discontinue sales of model year 2014 through 2016 Porsche Cayenne Diesel vehicles until further notice.
The German carmaker also revealed on Tuesday that carbon-dioxide emissions had been understated – leading it to underestimate the fuel consumption – and added 2 billion euros to its expected costs of the scandal.
Volkswagen said around 800,000 cars sold in Europe, mostly diesel cars, but a “limited” number of petrol models were affected. Diesel-gate has just become petrol-gate, too – and the emissions scandal surrounding the company has grown to include fuel economy. An Audi spokesperson stated they are determining how many of their vehicles are effected by the new development.
“We all have an interest that everything at VW is turned over and reviewed”, Mr Dobrindt said, adding that the government wanted to force the company to pay the additional auto taxes to be incurred by the higher CO² emissions levels.
“VW has once again failed its obligation to comply with the law that protects clean air for all Americans”, Giles said in a statement.
The credit downgrade “reflects mounting risks to Volkswagen’s reputation and future earnings”, Moody’s said, pointing out that the downgrade reflects several new revelations about the extent of the company’s violations. The company says it has already set aside €2 billion (£1.4 billion or $2.16 billion) for the 800,000 cars that may have Carbon dioxide issues; that’s about four times as much per vehicle than what VW set aside for the NOx defeat device issue.
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Volkswagen crashed to a loss of 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in the third quarter due to the scandal.
