Volkswagen announced Tuesday that it’s a two-time cheater, and said it may also have lied about the carbon dioxide emissions of 800,000 vehicles.
In a statement released Tuesday, Volkswagen said the vehicles in question, mostly “clean diesel” vehicles, had “irregularities” when it came to carbon dioxide levels. According to the company, vehicles with smaller engines had their carbon dioxide levels set too low during the certification process.
The irregularities were discovered during an internal investigation into the so-called “defeat devices” that allowed almost 500,000 Volkswagen “clean diesel” models to skirt nitrogen oxide emissions tests.
Matthias Muller, CEO of Volkswagen, apologized for the latest scandal.
“From the very start I have pushed hard for the relentless and comprehensive clarification of events. We will stop at nothing and nobody,” he said in a statement. “This is a painful process, but it is our only alternative. For us, the only thing that counts is the truth. That is the basis for the fundamental realignment that Volkswagen needs.”
The cost to the company for the latest scandal could be about $2.2 billion. Media reports indicated Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda and Seat vehicles could be affected in the latest scandal.
Volkswagen plans to work with regulatory agencies to figure out what to do about the 800,000 vehicles that skirted carbon dioxide emissions standards. The vehicles are still legal to drive, and the company has not yet been able to measure the impact of the new scandal.
On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was serving VW with its second notice of violation after 10,000 more vehicles were discovered to have the defeat devices that allowed vehicles to tell when they were undergoing emissions testing. During those tests, emissions would be up to nine times lower than they would be in normal road driving.
About 492,000 vehicles in the U.S., and about 11 million worldwide, are believed to have the defeat devices installed in their software. VW has announced it’s beginning a recall in European markets at the beginning of next year, but no such recall has been announced in the United States.
Volkswagen has denied having defeat devices on the latest batch of vehicles identified by the EPA.
The models covered under the latest notice of violation are the 2014 VW Touareg, the 2015 Porsche Cayenne and the 2016 Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A-L and Q5.
Officials at the German auto giant are blaming “rogue software engineers” for creating the rigging system.
Company officials have said the defeat devices were isolated incidents, but the discovery of additional models with the software were discovered by enhanced EPA and California Air Resources Board testing, officials said in a press call Monday.
The maximum fine the EPA could hand out for each vehicle with a defeat device is $37,500, meaning Volkswagen could face a fine of about $18.5 billion with the additional vehicles caught up in the latest round of testing. It’s not clear if that fine could increase now that Volkswagen has been served multiple violation notices for the same offense.
