Volkswagen, the German automobile manufacturer, has been investigated upon by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after six months following the company saying that it would review all light-duty vehicles within the nation. This is after the automobile firm admitted that they have installed a software in their diesel vehicles that have been sold since the year 2009 which allowed the cars to emit up to 40-times the legally allowable pollution. The automobile firm is about to recall 630,000 diesel vehicles that have made the infraction.
Volkswagen Will Recall Hundreds of Thousands of Vehicles Due to Them Emitting 40-Times the Legally Allowable Pollution
Director of North American corporate communications over at Daimler Han Trjan had told Cars.com that the investigation for Volkswagen will look into both diesel and gasoline emissions. The Mercedes-Bens brand owner stated that the firm was conducting the probe at the behest of the United States Justice Department. However, none of the vehicles that were tested had “defeat devices” which created the cheat that was made on laboratory tests, as reported by the UK Department of Transport, to which had ordered the investigation.
Volkswagen AG stated that the €16.2-billion charge will cover repairs, legal costs, and buybacks to date. Spokesman for the Justice Department Wyn Hornbuckle stated that federal officials would have to wait until Thursday’s hearing before speaking out. Senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book Karl Brauer says that governments, along with Mercedes, VW, and other automobile manufacturers, would have known for years that diesels could meet emissions standards within the laboratory, but not in real road scenarios. The probe will center around Daimler’s testing of the diesel engines.
The German automobile manufacturer reported a €1.36-billion net loss for the year 2015 along with an additional operating loss of €4.1-billion over the same year. These are the company’s first losses since the year 1993.
The announcement of the recall was made after the outlines of a deal with the USA environmental authorities. The owners’ lawyers are also requesting documents that the German automaker provided Jones Day, a law firm, in which the company has hired to investigate how the cheating took place. The car manufacturer stated on Thursday that it was asked to keep this matter confidential and that they have agreed to full cooperate with the United States authorities.
At the time of writing, Volkswagen had only just reached an agreement with the US regulators to offer owners of the company’s vehicles of some 480,000 illegally polluting diesel cars the options of fixing the cars or to buy them back. There is said to be “substantial compensation” included to those who are affected.