Report: More Volkswagen, Audi Vehicles May Have Emissions Cheating Software

Image courtesy of Benedict Benedict

Volkswagen may be poised to start putting that whole emission-cheating “defeat device” business behind it with a $15 billion agreement, but a new report suggests the carmaker may have other skeletons under its hood.

Reuters, citing a German publication Bild am Sonntag, reports that U.S. regulators found three unapproved software programs in certain 3.0 liter diesel engines in some VW, Porsche, and Audi vehicles.

The software, allegedly found in the Audi Q7, Volkswagen Touareg, and Porsche Cayenne SUV, can turn off the vehicles’ emissions controls after 22 minutes.

This, Reuters reports, is significant because most emissions tests take about 20 minutes to complete.

A spokesperson for the carmaker declined to provide comment on the alleged issue.

While VW has reached a proposed $15 billion deal to compensate owners of certain vehicles containing defeat device, the agreement does not include about 87,000 3.0 liter diesel engine vehicles. A separate settlement to resolve cheating allegations in those cars is expected to be reached in several months.

Just last month, the California Air Resources Board rejected VW’s plan to fix the emission cheating software in the vehicles, determining the proposal was “incomplete, substantially deficient, and falls far short of meeting the legal requirements to return these vehicles to the claimed certified configuration.”

U.S. finds unapproved emissions software in VW Audi engines: Bild am Sonntag [Reuters]

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