Volkswagen are sinking deeper into the mire. On Sunday, while we were all reading about scandal in the Tory party and high jinks with Labour the German newspaper `Bild am Sonntag' reported that "Volkswagen's top executives are alleged to have had knowledge that its cars were not as fuel efficient as it claimed a year ago". It also claimed that sources had "suggested engineers had admitted to the board that they had used several methods to cheat on emissions values, and that they had claimed the firm's CEO's public promise of a 30% emissions decline provoked them to cheat on the tests."
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/30 ... port_bild/
On 25 November, while our attention was occupied that morning by Turkish jet fighters shooting down a Russian aircraft (lots of `good days' for letting out bad news), the Auto Express magazine web site announced that:
"Over half of the 800,000 cars found with false mpg and CO2 figures have been identified as 2016 models by VW’s own internal investigation. The 430,000 vehicles include models from Audi, SEAT, Skoda and Volkswagen, and the Group has released a list (pdf link) detailing all of the models affected. This was the first time VW admitted its Euro 6 compliant engines have been manipulated, and the first time the Group’s frugal 3-cylinder petrol and diesel engines are drawn into the scandal. From the list it is also evident that Group cars with TSI or TFSI petrol, or TDI diesel engines with 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, and 2.0-litre capacities are involved – widening the scandal further."
Until now VW had been claiming that engines in its more recent models (EU6 engines) were free of the emissions problem. However the company now claims that it has not broken European emissions law and "A loophole in EU emissions regulation looks to have allowed VW to build cars with the software device". This seems to be down to the different interpretation of what was said in a meeting of the regulatory authority in 2012. VW has used this to justify a decision now made that it will not compensate European owners unlike its treatment of US owners who will receive $1000. On the other hand, VW has said it will offer a `loyalty bonus' discount on new cars to current affected owners who trade up to a new vehicle and that this will be over and above other incentives. (It will interesting to see if it attaches any conditions, which it would not be able to do if offering compensation.) VW UK's car sales were down nearly 10% in October over that time last year.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin says that an investigation is under way and bosses from the VW Group in the UK could face up to 10 years in prison if prosecuted for their role in the diesel emissions scandal.
The full article is here:
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/volkswagen ... atest-news
