They look for illegal software there

Volkswagen announced the expansion of its internal investigation. The manufacturer, which previously admitted the presence of illegally installed software on 11 million of its cars, wants to find out whether it was used on other types of engines.

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Volkswagen AG announced on Thursday it was expanding its internal investigation into the illegally installed software scandal. The German automaker wants to find out whether this software was used on other models of diesel engines with which its cars are equipped.

VW will recall 2.4 million cars due to Dieselgate

Let us recall that at the end of September, Volkswagen admitted http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2815912 that software that allows one to cheat tests on the level of harmful emissions was installed on 11 million of the concern’s diesel cars. As Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spokeswoman Cynthia Gilles explained, “these vehicles were equipped with software that turned off the emissions control and air purification systems during normal driving and turned them on when the emissions were being tested.” Then we were talking about engines of the EA189 model, which have been installed over the past few years on such brands as VW Jetta, VW Beetle, VW Golf, Audi A3, as well as VW Passat, produced in 2014-2015. Now the manufacturer wants to check cars with EA288 engines. If illegal software is found on the engines of this model, Volkswagen will likely have to expand the recall program to several million more cars. The fact is that EA288 was also installed on the Golf, which is the absolute leader in sales among the models of the German automaker.

As the new CEO of Volkswagen, Mathias Müller, has previously stated, engine recalls and repairs will cost the automaker $6.5 billion. Accordingly, if illegal software is discovered on other engines, this amount will increase significantly. In addition, the manufacturer then faces new lawsuits and fines, and the penalty from the EPA alone could reach approximately $18 billion.

Kirill Sarkhanyants

Volkswagen caught in manipulation in Europe

In September, German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt reported that Volkswagen admitted that it used software to hide harmful emissions not only in the United States, but also in Europe. The investigation could extend to other automakers. According to experts, Dieselgate could affect the global auto industry as a whole.Read more

Volkswagen is eyeing engines