Volkswagen used devices to cheat air pollution tests in diesel luxury vehicles, US environmental regulators said on Monday, in a new blow to the automaker already reeling from similar allegations regarding millions of smaller diesel engines.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it is now looking at 3-liter V6 diesel engines used mostly in larger, more expensive models, like the Porsche Cayenne sport utility vehicle (SUV), in addition to engines on Jettas, Passats and other mass-market models whose test-deceiving software were initially targeted by the agency in mid-September.
Volkswagen took issue with the EPA’s findings, saying that “no software has been installed” in its 3-liter V6 diesel engines “to alter emissions characteristics in a forbidden manner.”
Photo: Reuters
The V6 diesel was designed by Volkswagen’s Audi unit and widely used in premium models sold by Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche in model years 2014 through 2016.
The move pulls Porsche and Audi deeper into the scandal that has already engulfed corporate parent Volkswagen and its mass-market Volkswagen brand, shaving nearly 20 billion euros (US$22 billion) off its market capitalization.
On the road, emissions of the smog-causing pollutant nitrogen oxide on the affected high-end vehicles could be nine times higher than allowed, the EPA said.
About 10,000 of the luxury cars from Volkswagen units are fitted with the illegal software device, US and California regulators said.
It is not clear how many models fitted with the current version of the V6 might have the illegal software. The EPA said it cited only those vehicles and model years that it had recently tested. It did not say if it has tested earlier versions of the engine.
Among the diesel models officials named on Monday as being in violation of US laws are five Audi models, including the A6 sedan and the Q5 SUV. Also cited were the Volkswagen Touareg and Porsche Cayenne.
In a separate statement, Porsche said it was “surprised to learn this information.”
“Until this notice, all of our information was that the Porsche Cayenne Diesel is fully compliant,” the statement said.
In September, Volkswagen admitted it installed software that can cheat emissions tests, called defeat devices, in smaller, four-cylinder engines in about 482,000 cars in the US and more than 11 million worldwide.
The company has yet to come up with solutions to address illegal software on three generations of four-cylinder diesels first cited by the EPA on Sept. 18.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
RSS