BERLIN (AP) \u2014 Germany\u2019s Volkswagen, already reeling from the fallout of cheating on U.S. emissions tests for nitrogen oxide, said Tuesday that an internal investigation has revealed \u201cunexplained inconsistencies\u201d in the carbon dioxide emissions from 800,000 of its vehicles \u2014 a development it said could cost the company another 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion).<\/p>\n
The investigation was undertaken by the company after the revelations that many of its vehicles had software that allowed them to deceive U.S. nitrogen oxide tests. CEO Matthias Mueller promised Tuesday that Volkswagen \u201cwill relentlessly and completely clarify what has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a painful process, but for us there is no alternative,\u201d said Mueller, who took over after CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned in September because of the emissions-rigging scandal. \u201cFor us, only one thing counts, and that is the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The news is the latest in a string of problems identified with Volkswagen emissions, which have caused share prices to plummet.<\/p>\n
In September, the company admitted it had installed software designed to defeat tests for nitrogen oxide emissions for four-cylinder diesel engines on 11 million cars worldwide, including almost 500,000 in the U.S. It has already set aside 6.7 billion euros ($7.4 billion) to cover the costs of recalling those vehicles \u2014 and analysts expect the emissions scandal to cost the company much more than that.<\/p>\n
That scandal had already widened this week, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Volkswagen had installed software on thousands of Audi, Porsche and VW cars with six-cylinder diesel engines that allowed them to emit fewer pollutants during tests than in real-world driving. Volkswagen has denied the charge, but faces the prospect of more fines and lost sales.<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear whether the 800,000 vehicles announced Tuesday with the newly discovered carbon dioxide emission problems were among those already affected. Volkswagen did not identify any models by name.<\/p>\n
However, Jeannine Ginivan, spokeswoman for Volkswagen Group of America, said \u201cwe are told the issue is not related to the U.S. market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Volkswagen also did say the 800,000 were \u201cpredominantly vehicles with diesel engines,\u201d raising the possibility for the first time that some Volkswagens with gasoline-powered motors may also have emissions problems. A VW spokesman did not immediately return a phone call seeking clarification about that.<\/p>\n
Volkswagen\u2019s board of directors said in a separate statement that they learned of the development \u201cwith dismay and concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board of directors and the committee specially established to investigate will meet soon to discuss further measures and consequences,\u201d the board said.<\/p>\n
Despite the new issue, the company assured customers that the safety of the vehicles in question \u201cis in no way compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said Volkswagen \u201cwill endeavor to clarify the further course of action as quickly as possible and ensure the correct CO2 classification for the vehicles affected\u201d with the responsible authorities.<\/p>\n
In talks with the authorities \u2014 whom Volkswagen did not identify \u2014 the company said it hoped to come up with a \u201creliable assessment of the legal, and the subsequent economic consequences, of this not yet fully explained issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The news broke after Germany\u2019s DAX was closed for the day, but Volkswagen shares ended down 1.51 percent to 111 euros.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN (AP) \u2014 Germany\u2019s Volkswagen, already reeling from the fallout of cheating on U.S. emissions tests for nitrogen oxide, said Tuesday that an internal investigation has revealed \u201cunexplained inconsistencies\u201d in the carbon dioxide emissions from 800,000 of its vehicles \u2014 a development it said could cost the company another 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion). The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-22916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22916"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=22916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}