Germany: Carmaker Volkswagen said Thursday it would offer to refit almost a million more diesel cars in Germany to reduce harmful emissions, as the country’s auto industry is racked by overlapping scandals. At an industry-government summit on August 2, Volkswagen “will offer to refit four million vehicles and thereby significantly reduce emissions” chief executive Matthias Mueller said after meeting Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks.
Of those four million, some 2.5 are covered by a recall of diesel vehicles the world’s biggest carmaker introduced after admitting in 2015 to cheating regulatory emissions tests in 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide, a company spokesman said.
The remainder include some 600,000 German V6 and V8 diesel vehicles from VW subsidiary Audi announced Friday, of around 850,000 across Europe. That leaves around 900,000 previously unannounced cars covered by Thursday’s announcement, including models from subsidiary Porsche and VW’s Touareg sport utility vehicles, as well as some of its Transporter vans.
The spokesman added that the company had not yet decided how to reduce emissions in the latest tranche of vehicles announced and that its statement did not constitute a recall. German consumers are increasingly disenchanted with diesel vehicles after Volkswagen’s long-running scandal and fears that some cities could ban them from their streets at times of peak pollution.
Manufacturers are desperate to avoid such bans and are trying to convince politicians of their good faith ahead of next week’s summit, where participants are expected to find ways of reducing emissions of harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx). Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler recently announced a voluntary recall for some three million vehicles across Europe to reduce NOx output.
AFP