A woman walks by a Volkswagen dealer in Milan, Italy, Sunday, September 27, 2015.
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German authorities have given the VW Group just more than a week to prove that all its cars meet emissions regulations, amid reports in the national press that the company was warned as long ago as 2007 that using the software that cheated testing processes on production cars would be illegal.
German daily “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” said the warning emerged during Volkswagen’s current investigation into the scandal, BBC reported.
The German automaker admitted last week that it used special software to fool US emissions tests for its diesel vehicles.
Volkswagen has been engulfed in a scandal where it emerged that some of its diesel cars had been fitted with devices that could detect when they were being tested, concealing the real level of pollutants being emitted by them when on the road.
The biggest scandal in VW’s history has badly tarnished its name, left it exposed to billions in fines in the United States and investigations in countries from Norway to India, as well as wiping about a third off its stock market value in a week and forcing a leadership change.
A Volkswagen spokesman told AFP the company would soon present an action plan in Germany and “announce when we expect to launch a recall” that would include a software update, adding that “we are working at full throttle”.
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VW would hold those responsible for rigging the emissions test to account and discuss technical solutions for the problem with authorities, he said, citing a statement by the company’s supervisory board. “This will take several weeks”.
