CHAIRMAN of Volkswagen’s Management board, Matthias Müller has said the auto giant is doing everything to overcome the current emission crisis that has left the German auto company’s stocks dropping by over 50 per cent.
“We will not allow the crisis to paralyse us. On the contrary, we will use it as a catalyst to make the changes Volkswagen needs.”
He said the company would not rest until the matter has been resolved once and for all to our customers’ satisfaction.
Supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch said: “A group audit investigation is producing valuable findings which will help us create a structure that, rather than favouring breaches of regulations, will prevent them, or at least allow them to be detected early on.”
Pötsch said: “I here and now guarantee that we will pursue our thorough investigation to its conclusion. I vouch for this personally, as does the entire supervisory board of Volkswagen AG.”
Speaking further, he said VW’s testing practice “must undergo comprehensive changes” and future emissions testing will be evaluated both externally and independently.
VW announced earlier it was satisfied CO2 emissions were largely as claimed and is now eyeing the software-influenced excess NOx emissions which, VW said, were largely due to “misconduct and shortcomings of individual employees, weaknesses in some processes and, crucially, “a mindset in some areas of the company that tolerated breaches of rules”.
The company disclosed that software for engine control devices now “will be developed more strictly in accordance with the ‘four-eyes’ principle and other aspects of software development are being reorganized. Deficiencies were also found in reporting and monitoring systems.
However, VW has now acknowledged a fix in the US may be more difficult: “Due to far stricter nitrogen oxide limits in the United States, it is a greater technical challenge to retrofit the vehicles such that all applicable emissions limits can be met with one and the same emissions strategy. To this end, VW is cooperating closely with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The solution designed for North America will be presented as soon as it has been approved by the responsible authorities.”