Dieselgate : Audi more involved, and Volkswagen plus leaded – Challenges.fr

The German newspaper Bild has just announced in its Sunday edition that Audi may be more involved than announced in the scandal of the Diesels-fixing of the Volkswagen Group. In fact, the authority in california for the protection of the environment, Carb, has recently discovered a new illegal software in an Audi model equipped with a V6 engine. This time, the case of the A6, A8 and Q5, in gasoline and Diesel, equipped with automatic transmissions.

This software would allow some of the Audi vehicles to automatically detect, based on the tilt of the steering wheel, if they are riding on the road or on a roller dynamometer, when tests are performed on the exhaust gases. According to Bild, the system would adopt in this case a law of transition reports, various of its automatic transmissions, to reduce artificially the level of emission of CO2. The mounting of this device would have lasted until the year may 2016, well after the revelation of the scandal took place in September 2015 !

in addition, the German department of justice has expanded its investigation to the chairman of the supervisory board of the Volkswagen Group, announced on Sunday the automaker. “The prosecutor’s office in Brunswick has expanded its investigation on suspicion of price manipulation to Hans Dieter Pötsch,” which directs the controlling body of the group and is referred to in this case for the period where he held the position of chief financial officer, has pointed out VW in a statement.

The justice suspects that the manufacturer has been informed too late, on purpose, the financial markets of the implications and financial risks associated with the bursting of the scandal of the software implanted in numerous Volkswagen models, to distort the measures of pollutant emissions. To date, the investigation opened in June was the former boss of the group, Martin Winterkorn, as well as a second former manager, whose name has not been unveiled. Volkswagen said despite all convinced that its management board “has filled in accordance with the act, its obligations in terms of communication with the markets”.

Volkswagen has had to admit in September 2015, according to a survey in the United States, having rigged with the aid of a software, the diesel engines of the eleven million vehicles in the world. He must still, after a year, manage the legal and financial consequences of this scandal without precedent for him. In the United States, the justice has just approved a plan compensation of nearly $ 15 billion to settle part of the dispute. Volkswagen, however, remains a criminal prosecution, and has yet to find a solution for some 80,000 additional vehicles of the brands Audi and Porsche. The group is still facing a cascade of lawsuits and investigations in the rest of the world.

(With AFP)