Volkswagen in another scandal?

Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Müller has called for fuel consumption and emissions tests to be changed to deliver numbers closer to real-world driving figures.

Ironically, the call came on the same day the recall of 8.5 million 'Dieselgate' cars began in Europe and on the same day the company was accused of sneaking in a long list of fuel-consumption and emission dodges by British magazine, Autocar.

It also comes less than a week after Volkswagen’s UK boss told Parliament the company had no plans to follow the US example and compensate owners for Dieselgate because all affected cars would be made legally compliant in a recall.

In a statement after a company function yesterday, Müller insisted Europe’s emissions tests had to change so they were credible, accurate and relevant in the real world.

“The industry-wide discrepancies between official test results and actual usage is no longer tolerable,” Müller explained. “We, the industry, need to take a new path.”

While the cynical might suggest you, the Volkswagen Group, need to take a new path, Müller’s words reflect growing industry and legislative discomfort with the inaccuracies of the NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) laboratory test.

Though they were only ever designed to deliver a comparable figure free of variables (such as temperature, humidity, wind, traffic etc), car-makers have long found loopholes in the NEDC rules to lower their consumption and emissions figures.

Müller went on to urge European Union officials to fast-track fast-charging networks to power the hordes of battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles about to hit European roads, including 20 from Volkswagen before 2020.

Even as he spoke, however, Volkswagen was being slated by Autocar for silently altering the fuel-consumption data on more than three dozen models across Europe just weeks after Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Müller and Supervisory Board Chairman Hans-Dieter Pötsch insisted to the world’s media in December that they would lead a more open, humble and accountable company than the one guilty of the Dieselgate emissions cheat.

Speaking in December at the release of the preliminary report into the internal investigation into Dieselgate and a potential CO2-underreporting scandal, Müller said some of its cars would have to have their economy numbers adjusted by small margins.

Yet Seat, Volkswagen and Audi models in Europe have been adjusted by up to 10 per cent on the originally reported NEDC figures, leaving drivers paying more at the fuel pump every week.

The CO2 scandal, the second of the Volkswagen Group scandals to rock the company late last year, was downgraded from an 800,000-car crisis of chronic “implausible” underreporting to just 36,000 cars in the interim report. Yet three of the four Volkswagen Group volume brands changed their CO2 figures upwards just a day later, without announcing it.

Ten Audi diesels are affected, with six A1 1.6-litre TDI variants jumping up to five per cent higher, four A4 3.0-litre V6 TDI models have had their CO2 figures raised by 4g/km and some Q3 models are impacted as well.

Volkswagen has admitted that six of its home-brand models have moved their consumption and CO2 figures up, while 26 Seat Ibiza and Leon models have moved, including one model by 10g/km.

Oddly, the Volkswagen Group’s Czech brand, Skoda, insists its figures are accurate and will not change.

The issue, a Volkswagen Group spokesman said, stemmed from the preliminary figures being given to national Transport departments and even the brands themselves from the Volkswagen Powertrain teams before the cars are launched.

“The figure that’s originally quoted comes from them, but then when the cars are in full production we take some cars off the end of the line to recalibrate the tests, and that’s what has happened here,” he said.

“When determining fuel consumption levels it is a normal process after the start of production to verify the figure ascertained in the initial measurement using a factory-new production vehicle. This is done as part of the legally required follow-up measurements.

“Occasionally it can happen that pursuant to the follow-up measurements the fuel consumption figures then be corrected. This is done in accordance with the prevailing statutory regulations and in consultation with the type approval authority.”

This process is known as Conformity of Production and the Volkswagen Group insisted yesterday that the changes were made public in the “normal channels”, including notifying dealers and customers waiting on order lists.

Audi responded in a statement, suggesting “the CO2 emissions of our vehicles are regularly checked because small changes do occur in terms of production processes, equipment levels, etc.

"When these changes create a subsequent change in the CO2 emission levels of a vehicle, this is discussed with the relevant authorities and a new official figure is determined which becomes the new official figure for the brochure."

While both the Volkswagen brand and Volkswagen Powertrain test their cars in Germany, Seat tests its cars in Spain, Skoda has its NEDC tests done in England and Audi does its NEDC and CO2 tests in Luxembourg.