VW hit with new cheating allegation
Sister company Audi investigated for using software to defeat C02 tests
Volkswagen AG’s efforts to emerge from the diesel-emissions scandal were dealt a double blow after German prosecutors extended their probe to chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch and a newspaper reported Audi installed additional cheating software in some of its cars.
Europe’s largest automaker has struggled to extricate itself from the crisis, which erupted in September 2015 after Volkswagen admitted to rigging about 11 million cars worldwide to cheat on emissions tests. Poetsch, who was chief financial officer when U.S. authorities were investigating, was installed as chairman in the aftermath of the revelations to help stabilize the company. Audi, which developed some of the engines involved in the scandal, is the group’s biggest profit contributor and is critical to Volkswagen’s recovery plan.
In an investigation into allegations of market manipulation, German prosecutors named Poetsch as a third suspect after interviewing more witnesses and examining “other sources,” Klaus Ziehe, spokesman for the Braunschweig prosecutors’ office, said Monday. “Initial evidence” suggests that Poetsch may have been involved, he said.
In the U.S., environmental authorities in California discovered that certain Audi gasoline and diesel models include software that direct the engines to burn less fuel and emit less carbon dioxide on test stands than on the roads, Germany’s Bild newspaper reported on Sunday. The findings made over the summer apply to automatictransmission cars including the Audi A6 and A8 sedans and the Q5 sport utility vehicle, the newspaper said. Audi had stopped installing the defeat devices in new vehicles by that time, Bild said.
When the steering wheel of those vehicles was turned more than 15 degrees, as if backing out of a parking space, the emissions-limiting software disengaged, Bild reported. An Audi spokesman declined to comment on the report, citing ongoing negotiations with authorities.
Volkswagen says that management “fulfilled its disclosure obligation under German capital markets law.” Meanwhile, Wolfgang Porsche, head of the clan that controls the majority of Volkswagen’s voting shares, said the families “absolutely stand behind Mr. Poetsch.”