VW chief says emissions inquiry may take months
Volkswagen needs to explain to investigators how the cheating occurred and who was responsible or it could face higher penalties from regulators.
FRANKFURT, Germany — Volkswagen is still several months away from being able to clarify who was responsible for installing emissions-cheating software in millions of diesel vehicles and plunging the company into crisis, the automaker’s leader said last week.
The statement by the chief executive, Matthias Mueller, is a further indication that the company’s internal investigation is moving slowly. That could raise tensions with U.S. authorities who are eager to identify who was responsible.
“We are speaking here of very complex occurrences, which in some cases are far in the past,” Mueller said during a speech to about 1,000 Volkswagen managers gathered at the company headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. “It will take several months before there are conclusive findings.”
However, in a positive development for Volkswagen, Mueller said it would be less complicated and less costly than feared to bring cars in Europe with illegal software into compliance with emissions regulations.
Of more than 11 million cars programmed to cheat on emissions tests, the overwhelming majority are in Europe. About 500,000 of the vehicles are in the United States.
Representatives of Volkswagen and its Audi division recently met with officials from the Environmental Protection Agency to present proposals for making cars in the United States compliant with clean air rules. Audi said it would install updated software in about 10,000 vehicles that the EPA said were also programmed to deceive regulators. The cost of replacing the software will be in the “mid-double-digit millions of euros,” Audi said.
The vehicles are the Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5 and Q7 equipped with V6 diesel engines from the 2009 model year and later. Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg SUVs from the 2013 model year onward also have the engine and must be reprogrammed, Audi said.
Volkswagen must also repair cars with 2-liter diesel motors such as the Golf, Jetta and the Chattanooga-made Passat since 2009 that have illegal software. Volkswagen has not yet given details of those remedial measures, which could be more complex than the measures in Europe because the United States places stricter limits on emissions of nitrogen oxides, pollutants linked to lung ailments.
Volkswagen has admitted that diesel-powered cars sold in the United States since 2009 were programmed to detect when they were being tested, and to activate equipment that helps neutralize nitrogen oxides. When the cars were on the road, the equipment was partly deactivated, improving engine performance.
Mueller said 2-liter diesel engines in Europe could be made compliant by updating the software. Cars with 1.6-liter engines will require some new equipment in addition to the revised software. But Mueller said the hardware changes, like alterations to the air-filtering system, would be relatively simple.
The company is still working on modifications for 1.2-liter diesel motors, but it is likely that a software update will be sufficient, Mueller added.
Volkswagen did not sell cars with 1.2-liter or 1.6liter diesel engines in the United States.
In the course of Volkswagen’s internal investigation, led by the law firm Jones Day and including auditors from the consulting firm Deloitte, computers, smartphones and documents like meeting minutes have been seized, Mueller said. Investigators have also conducted numerous interviews, he said.
He said his goal was to present a preliminary report on the inquiry by the end of the month. The final report will take longer.
Volkswagen has offered amnesty to employees who come forward with information. The unusual measure was seen as a sign that investigators were having trouble persuading workers to talk. The amnesty program, which protects people from being fired but not from criminal charges, expires Monday.
Prosecutors in Braunschweig, Germany, are pursuing a separate criminal inquiry and are focusing on six suspects who have not been identified. That investigation is still considered preliminary.
Volkswagen needs to explain how the cheating occurred and who was responsible or it could face higher penalties from regulators.
In early September, the U.S. Justice Department said it would put increased emphasis on identifying and punishing guilty individuals in cases of corporate misconduct. The new policy reflected frustration that large fines paid by companies, and ultimately borne by their shareholders, were not enough of a deterrent to rogue executives.
The policy was announced only weeks before the Volkswagen emissions cheating came to light, making the company a prime test case.
In an expression of rectitude that critics have said was absent from Volkswagen in the past, Mueller, who became chief executive in late September, said that whoever was responsible for the cheating had misguided priorities and motives.
“No business in the world justifies violating legal and ethical limits,” he said.