Volkswagen said it had “largely concluded the clarification of the matter” concerning an investigation into whether the published CO2 emissions of its vehicles reflected real-world conditions.
“Following extensive internal investigations and measurement checks, it is now clear that almost all of these model variants do correspond to the CO2 figures originally determined. This means that these vehicles can be marketed and sold without any limitations,” the automaker said in a statement that noted the comments did not apply to models sold in the US and Canada.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“The suspicion that the fuel consumption figures of current production vehicles had been unlawfully changed was not confirmed. During internal remeasurements slight deviations were found on just nine model variants of the Volkswagen brand.”
VW said it would have those variants remeasured by a “neutral technical service under the supervision of the appropriate authority by Christmas”.
“In cases where the correctness of original figures is confirmed, there will be no consequences. These cars can be offered for sale by dealers without any reservations. In the case of any deviations, the figures will be adjusted in the future in the course of the normal processes as required.
The automaker has reported results to the investigation commission of the German federal government and the federal motor transport authority (KBA).
“The figure of approximately 800,000 vehicles under suspicion originally published by the Volkswagen Group has not been confirmed. The deviations found in the figures for only nine model variants amount to a few grams of CO2 on average, corresponding to increased cycle consumption in the NEDC of approximately 0.1 to 0.2 litres per 100km. With an annual production of approximately 36,000 vehicles, these model variants correspond to around only 0.5% of the volume of the Volkswagen brand,” VW said.
Group brands Audi, Skoda and Seat have also agreed a similar procedure with the approval authorities responsible for the vehicles initially considered, VW added.
“Customers’ real-world consumption figures do not change and neither are any technical vehicle modifications necessary. Against this background, the negative impact on earnings of EUR2bn that was originally expected has not been confirmed,” VW said, adding: “Whether we will have a minor economic impact, depends on the results of the remeasurement exercise.”
