Volkswagen may be headed for an easy fix in emission-cheating crisis
According to Bloomberg's Christoph Rauwald, VW Group CEO Matthias Mueller told a group of 1,000 company executives on Monday that VW has gained approval to implement a software update for 2.0-liter diesel engines with software installed that's designed to cheat emissions tests.
Furthermore, VW has agreed in principle to a plan to fix its 1.6-liter units, which the CEO described as "relatively simple changes," Bloomberg reported.
According to the publication, the fix for the 1.6-liter engine involves a software update and modifications to the car's air filter.
More than 11 million 1.2, 1.6 and 2.0 liter VW TDI diesel engined cars, worldwide, were fitted with software designed to cheat emissions testing.
Of those, 8.5 million of the offending cars reside in Europe. VW's deal with the European government covers roughly 90% of the 8.5 million cars. Mueller did not detail the the cost of the repairs to VW in his speech to executives. However, the VW boss indicated that the costs were "manageable."
In the US, roughly 500,000 cars sold between 2008 and 2015 were equipped with VW's cheat software.
In addition, VW Group announced that the EPA and the California Air Resources Board have allowed the company to revise the software in 85,000 larger 3.0-liter, TDI-engined cars. This allows the offending 3.0-liter cars to be re-evaluated by the government agencies.
Earlier this month, the EPA and CARB issued a notice of violation accusing the automaker of installing cheating software on its 3.0 TDI engines in addition to their smaller 2.0-liter units.
VW Group denied these allegations.
"Volkswagen AG wishes to emphasize that no software has been installed in the 3-liter, V6 diesel-power units to alter emissions characteristics in a forbidden manner," the company said in a statement.
Most of the cars affected the EPA's November announcement are sold under VW's Audi luxury brand, whereas the initial September violations centered by the company's mass-market Volkswagen brand.