German police in dawn raid

POLICE and prosecutors swooped in on Volkswagen (VW) facilities and private homes yesterday in a dawn raid to gather evidence about who was behind the car maker’s decision to cheat on diesel emissions tests.

Three prosecutors and some 50 state criminal investigators had searched the car maker’s factories and employees’ homes starting in the early morning and continuing through the afternoon in Wolfsburg, its headquarters city, and elsewhere, said Birgit Seel, a senior prosecutor in the German state of Lower Saxony.

Investigators took documents and electronic media, and it might take several weeks to review the material, Seel said. She didn’t identify employees whose homes were searched.

“We will fully support the prosecutor’s office with its investigation into the facts of the case and into the people responsible to swiftly and completely get to the bottom of the matter,” VW said in a statement. The company filed its own criminal complaint on September 23.

The raids come as pressure on VW intensifies. The company’s US chief, Michael Horn, was due to face US lawmakers yesterday in the first public hearing on the scandal.

In Europe alone, VW would probably need to exchange or rebuild parts for about 3.6 million engines equipped with illegal software that turned on full pollution controls only during tests, German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in a video posted late Wednesday on the ministry’s website.