German auto giant Volkswagen steered clear of a fresh blow in its emissions-rigging scandal, saying that another type of diesel engine which had raised concerns was not fitted with software designed to dupe testers.
“It is now confirmed” that the questionable software fitted on 11 million vehicles “is not installed” in the type of diesel engines that had replaced the EA189 engines, which are at the heart of the massive scandal.
A company spokesman had earlier said that the carmaker was checking whether another engine, the EA288 were also equipped with the cheating device.
The EA288 engines replaced the EA189 engines which have plunged Volkswagen into the storm of a worldwide scam.
Volkswagen said that the EA288 engines within the European Union are not fitted with the software and consequently “new vehicles of the Volkswagen Group offered within the European Union with those engines comply with legal requirements and environmental standards”.
The company headquartered in Wolfsburg in north Germany last month admitted to fitting 11 million vehicles of its various brands — VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat — with the rogue devices, engulfing the world’s biggest automaker by sales in an unprecedented crisis.
The software turns on pollution controls when the vehicle is undergoing official emissions tests, and switches them off when the car is back on the road, allowing it to spew out harmful levels of dangerous gases.
The revelations about VW’s manipulation of its diesel engines have sparked one of the biggest scandals in the history of the automobile sector.
In addition to the costs of repairing so many vehicles, the once-respected automaker faces billions of euros (dollars) in potential fines and legal costs, aside from the incalculable fallout from lost sales and diminished customer trust.
Investigations over the diesel engines equipped with the pollution cheating device are under way in several countries, including the United States, Italy, Spain, France and Germany itself.
Volkswagen is preparing for a massive recall of affected vehicles, which it has to repair so they can meet environmental standards in the countries concerned.
The VW spokesman today revealed that around three million of these are 1.6 litre diesel engine vehicles, which would need significant repairs.
Others with 1.2 litre and 2.0 litre engines would only require a software update.