VW said to cheat with petrol car emissions as well as diesel

Cars could be manipulated to show lower levels of carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption, Bild claims

FILE: A Volkswagen AG (VW) Golf automobile stands in a light tunnel during final quality checks at the VW factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Thursday, March 8, 2018. For BMW AG, Tesla Inc. and other global automakers whose future is ever-more dependent on China’s burgeoning market, any gains from lower import tariffs this week will likely be short-lived -- thanks to President Donald Trump’s trade war. Unless President Trump backs down, on July 6 the U.S. will impose tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports, many of them parts used in products such as marine engines and power turbines. China will impose countervailing levies the same day -- including on U.S.-manufactured cars. Our editors select archive images of the leading brands affected by the trade war. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

A VW factory in Wolfsburg, Germany. The firm is accused of further data manipulation. Bloomberg

Sep 02, 2018

Volkswagen engineers have told investigators that certain petrol engines in VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles can be used to manipulate emissions tests, German Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag said.

A spokesman for Volkswagen - the parent company of Audi and Porsche - said VW would not comment on an ongoing investigation, adding that the company in recent months had held intensive talks with the Federal Motor Transport Authority.

"There are no new circumstances here," he said.

Gearboxes and software could be manipulated so that vehicles show lower levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and fuel consumption, Bild said, citing internal documents and witness statements.

VW's emissions scandal has cost the car maker €27 billion (Dh115.06bn) in penalties and fines for systematic manipulation of diesel-powered cars to mask excessive pollution levels.

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In Europe, vehicles are taxed according to their levels of polluting CO2 emissions.

It remains unclear whether the Bild documents represent a new dimension to the Volkswagen cheating scandal since the car maker in 2015 admitted that around 36,000 petrol-fuelled cars were also being tested for excessive emissions.

VW had the 36,000 cars checked by a neutral body under supervision by the regulator and found minimal deviation from requirements. The auto maker was not required to make any technical changes to those vehicles.

Regulators in the United States blew the whistle on deliberate emissions cheating on September 18, 2015 after it emerged that the car maker had developed an engine that failed to conform to pollution standards.

VW used software to detect when a car was being subjected to a regulatory emissions measurement test, and throttled back the engines during the test cycle, masking excessive pollution.

When a car engine was being accelerated and gears changed, VW’s onboard software would check whether the steering wheel was also being used. If the steering wheel angle was not being altered, VW knew a vehicle was strapped to a dynamometer test bench, activating exhaust emission filters.