Dieselgate: Overseas recalls from January
European Dieselgate VW recalls won’t start until 2016. No news on local timelineThe struggle to find a fix means embattled Volkswagen won’t start recalling its emissions-cheating four-cylinder diesel engines until at least January next year.
New CEO Matthias Müller yesterday confirmed the first of the 11 million #Dieselgate affected cars would be recalled in four months, though the more complex cases could take up to a year to reconfigure enough to ensure they comply with various NOx emission laws.
Thrown in at the deep end as the Volkswagen Group’s new CEO in the midst of its biggest crisis in more than half a century, Müller confirmed that the technical side of the recall was close to being internally approved and validated.
The earliest recalls would involve the 2.0-litre EA189 turbodiesels, which use the Bosch-supplied EDC 16 engine management software, in models from Seat, Skoda, Volkswagen, Audi and Volkswagen Commercial. It is believed that this repair will involve a software reflash that will both bring the NOx emissions into line with real-world limits all the time, and delete the ‘defeat’ cheater coding that switches on the engine’s maximum emissions cleaning only when it’s tested in a laboratory.
The remedial work on the 1.6-litre version, which uses a different Continental fuel-injection system, will take longer. Volkswagen sources insist this will involve both hardware (including fuel injectors) and software changes and the delay is due to Volkswagen validating the hardware additions through its own durability test programs.
The rollout schedule for the fix was officially approved by Volkswagen’s Supervisory Board at a meeting this morning, just in time to meet a deadline imposed by Germany’s Transport Department to deliver a regimented timetable to repair the cars or risk having affected cars banned from driving on German roads.
Müller presented the plan to 20,000 Volkswagen workers Monday and the plan has been handed over to German authorities for ratification.
“Our most important task will be to regain lost confidence with our customers, partners, investors and the general public,” Müller said.
“The first step in this direction will be a fast and relentless examination and explanation. Only when everything comes to the table, only when things are completely explained, only the will people trust us again.
“Believe me, I too an impatient, but in this situation, in which we are dealing with four brands and many models, care is more important than speed.
“The technical solutions to the problems are in sight. But contrast, the business and financial consequences are not yet foreseeable,” Muller stated.
The news comes as Volkswagen Australia finally took a step towards assuaging the fears of its owners by launching a website, where customers can enter the VINs of their Volkswagens and Skodas to determine whether their cars are affected. Audi has already launched its own website.
Such is the demand for clarity in a situation made more murky by Volkswagen’s ongoing silence that similar websites in Germany and the UK both crashed from high traffic loads within hours of being launched.
Volkswagen has yet to respond to repeated questions on whether the ‘defeat’ code was used to pass European emissions laws as well as the US EPA laws. It will not answer questions about power losses when the code is operational, nor about fuel consumption penalties when the code is operational.
The petrol-powered cars are unaffected by the cheating scandal and Volkswagen insists the V6 turbodiesels were not caught up in the crisis either.
It has taken its remaining stocks of EA189-powered cars off sale in almost all of its global markets, though it waited two weeks after the scandal broke to do so and five weeks after it confessed its cheat to the EPA.
In other #Dieselgate news, Volkswagen of America has reportedly withdrawn its application for US EPA certification for 2016 model year turbo-diesel passenger vehicles. US industry publication, Automotive News (AN), this morning reported that the decision is disclosed in written testimony Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn is due to deliver during a hearing before the US Federal Government’s Energy and Commerce committee.
Without EPA certification, the cars cannot be sold in the USA which, AN says, “means there could be a longer-than-expected wait for the [return of] diesel models”.
“VW had been awaiting EPA approval for the 2016 diesels, but withdrew its request as part of its ongoing discussions with US regulators in the wake of its emissions scandal,” the AN report stated.
Dieselgate related reading:
Huge recall planned, other brands hit
Audis affected top two million
ACCC issues statement on VW emissions saga
Müller locked in as Volkswagen CEO
BMW forced to deny emissions rigging
Volkswagen boss Winterkorn to go as crisis spreads
Dieselgate worsens, 11m vehicles could be affected
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