BERLIN: Germany’s Volkswagen, already reeling from the fallout of cheating on U.S. emissions tests for nitrogen oxide, said Tuesday that an internal investigation has revealed “unexplained inconsistencies” in the carbon dioxide emissions from 800,000 of its vehicles — a development it said could cost the company another 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion).
The investigation was undertaken by the company after the revelations that many of its vehicles had software that allowed them to deceive U.S. nitrogen oxide tests. CEO Matthias Mueller promised Tuesday that Volkswagen “will relentlessly and completely clarify what has happened.”
“It is a painful process, but for us there is no alternative,” said Mueller, who took over after CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned in September because of the emissions-rigging scandal. “For us, only one thing counts, and that is the truth.”
The news is the latest in a string of problems identified with Volkswagen emissions, which have caused share prices to plummet.
In September, the company admitted it had installed software designed to defeat tests for nitrogen oxide emissions for four-cylinder diesel engines on 11 million cars worldwide, including almost 500,000 in the U.S. It has already set aside 6.7 billion euros ($7.4 billion) to cover the costs of recalling those vehicles — and analysts expect the emissions scandal to cost the company much more than that.
That scandal had already widened this week, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Volkswagen had installed software on thousands of Audi, Porsche and VW cars with six-cylinder diesel engines that allowed them to emit fewer pollutants during tests than in real-world driving. Volkswagen has denied the charge, but faces the prospect of more fines and lost sales.
