Volkswagen’s chief executive told a German newspaper the company would launch a recall in January for cars affected by its diesel emissions crisis and complete the fix by the end of next year.
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VW has said it will have to refit up to 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide, include 2.8 million in Germany, that contained software capable of cheating emissions tests.
Volkswagen’s new CEO Matthias Muller, addressing 20,000 workers yesterday at a works council meeting in Wolfsburg, said: ‘We will review all planned investments, and what isn’t absolutely vital will be cancelled or delayed.
Volkswagen Korea plans to send out an apology letter to about 92,000 customers owning its cars, whose emission results are suspected of having been manipulated, the officials said.
The online tool is part of VGA’s action plan to respond to what it calls the “global diesel emissions issue” and follows a number of 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre diesel engined VW’s, Audis and Skodas being pulled from sale in Australia this week.
When Volkswagen’s top American executive heads to Capitol Hill this week, he probably won’t be able to count on longtime allies among the lawmakers investigating the company’s emissions cheating scandal. He also revealed that, although most cars will require a simple software update, a few will need more serious intervention in terms of hardware changes.
Volkswagen has until Wednesday to give German regulators a binding timetable that sets out when it will have a fix for the cars in the country and by when it can be implemented.
Investigations could take months, according to the company. VW has lost a big chunk of its market value in the stock markets, indicating the damage that has been done to the reputations of the brands involved.
“That goes for Bugatti too”, he said. If other companies are found to have been up to the same tricks, or consumers lose their trust in German vehicle makers more generally, it would threaten Germany’s growth, which is now still shaky. He also told them that the rebuilding process “won’t be painless”.
However, compare that to General Motors, which spent seven times as much as VW on federal lobbying in 2014.
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see … commercials that say, ‘We know we messed up”.
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Expected to be the largest recall in Volkswagen’s history, the CEO’s comments are still the first in regards to when recalls will begin and how long it will take for things to be resolved.
