Switch to "Dieselgate": is the VW cheat software installed again?

Sunday, December 23, 2018

This scandal has been keeping the attention of the VW Group for more than three years.

photo / dpa alliance

This threatens the new twist in the diesel scandal at VW: during the modernization of affected engines, a potentially unacceptable software is used according to a press report. Their function could help hide exhaust emissions.

The automaker VW could have exchanged a cheat software for the upgrade of diesel engines against another: According to a newspaper article, the manufacturer should have installed an update of the EA 189 engines concerned, which could also cheat in measuring on the test bench. Sunday ". In this case, the internal quality badurance of the Wolfsburg-based company drew attention to the circumstances.

According to the software update for 1.2-liter engines, a potentially illegal function may be included. According to the report, this is programmed so that the vehicle drives cleanly during the official NEDC test procedure. A warming function therefore increases the purification of the exhaust gases after the initial start of the engine, it decreases after a certain fuel consumption but again.

Kraftfahrtbundesamt (KBA) experts already badume that an invalid stopping device is used internally. The authority had itself been informed by Volkswagen of these anomalies, as a spokesman for VW said at the request. The Federal Ministry of Transport also confirmed to the paper that KBA was investigating the process. The upgrade with the controversial update should have been stopped according to "BamS" in the meantime.

Around 10,000 polo hit in Germany

Targeted by the possible cheat update would be alone in Germany, among others, 10,000 VW Polo. In contrast to the other two variants of the EA 189 engine type with 1.6 and 2.0 liter displacement, the 1.2-liter version now concerned was not installed very often. The current "Dieselgate" concerns a total of about eleven million models of VW, Audi and Skoda, in which EA 189 type engines were installed between 2009 and 2014.

Improvements, fines, compensation for investors and customers have cost the VW group since 2015 already more than 27 billion euros. This year alone, the costs amount to 5.5 billion euros, said CFO Frank Wittwer of the "Börsen-Zeitung". "Over the next year, we expect a total of about two billion euros.In 2020, it should still be around one billion euros."