Volkswagen ‘was warned 8 years ago’

CAR giant Volkswagen was warned eight years ago by the manufacturer of its emissions-rigging software that the product was only for testing and would be illegal for road use.

A memo found at the company’s Germany HQ on Friday revealed senior executives had been warned not to exploit the software for diesel engines being exported to the United States.

The latest revelation in the scandal that has brought the German carmaker to its knees came as it emerged the firm could have avoided disaster with a simple engine part costing around £200. But boardroom executives deemed it too expensive to fit to all vehicles bound for America.

Instead, the decision was taken to implant the emissions-rigging Bosch software – a move that will end up costing the firm billions of pounds and threatens its very existence.

Last week as its share price slumped disastrously, VW apologised for cheating on emissions tests in the US.

The spiralling scandal has badly tarnished VW’s name, left it exposed to billions of dollars in fines in the United States and to investigations from Norway to India, while wiping about a third off its stock market value in a week.

Some 11million VW diesel cars built since 2008 are affected by the scandal.

They had the devices, which could detect when the engine was being tested and could change the car’s performance to improve results.

Separately, it has emerged EU officials were f i rst warned i n 2013 that the technology could be used to cheat the emissions tests. But regulators ignored the report from the European Commission’s own research body. The study also suggested testing cars on the roads rather that in the lab, where car makers can improve engine efficiency by turning up the temperature and removing a car’s rear seats to make it lighter.