Audi said that 2.1 million of its cars worldwide have been fitted with illegal software to help it cheat emissions tests, Reuters reported.
The automaker announced that multiple models including the A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3 and Q5 were affected by the “defeat device” uncovered by researchers, which is grinding Volkswagen to an unimaginable halt.
Roughly three-quarters of the affected Audis were sold in Western Europe, including 577,000 in Germany alone, according to the report.
Only a small proportion of the illegal Audis were sold in the U.S. Only about 13,000 cars were sold in the States.
Last week, Volkswagen announced that around 11 million cars were affected; 5 million of the cars were Volkswagen-branded, including its Golf, Passat and Tiguan.
Imagine my surprise! They can make up for it though by releasing a new crossover. God knows we forget all the woes and swoon over those.
Aha! Now the reality of the truth is beginning to ooze out. More revelations to follow no doubt.
Most or all of these Audis are *gas* engined, no?
“Only a small proportion of the illegal Audis were sold in the U.S. Only about 13,000 cars were sold in the States.”
Based on that I’m guessing they are talking about the diesel versions that are very common here in Europe. I think I see a plume of black smoke from a compact car at least once a day.
The problem isn’t soot it is NOx – you don’t see NOx so this had nothing to do with black clouds.
My comment on black clouds was only a personal anecdote on how common diesel audi/vw are in Europe compared to the states.
So far still VW products and still just diesels.
Tick Tick Tick Tick …. when do the other shoes drop?
Other car makers ?
Gasoline engines ?
Just how far does this cheating scandal go ?
Reducing NOx in gas engines isn’t costly. Probably not an issue.
This sounds like a cost-cutting measure. Diesel produces more pollution, and it takes more money to reduce it.
Yeah, I still read this entire thing as “trying to avoid DEF systems in tiny diesels”.
I expect zero crossover to gas engines, and I’m not sanguine about the odds of other manufacturers being implicated, since IIRC the competition all uses DEF systems to mitigate NOx.
Seat and SKODA to – SKODA saying over 1 million vehicles – figure the count will tickle 15 million cars and SUVs when it’s all added up across all makes and models.
What a Clusterphuck…GM & VAG definitely need to merge, stat….leverage that gross incompetence.
VW too big to fail.
The German government will need to bail out VW after all of the world wide fines, re-engineering costs, suits for diminished value and a sales slump due to tarnished reputation.
The German state of Lower Saxony (a major VW shareholder) is in for some serious budget woes.
This is a golden chance for Porsche to become independent again, as VW needs some major cash to weather this storm.
Time for a strategic bankruptcy? Leave the fines, warrantees, and legacy labor costs behind and start over?
We saw how that worked out before!
“..same as the old boss!”
Their gonna have to pull all those ads with the “Truth in Engineering” slogan. Truly ironic.
If you lease a car in the UK then emissions often drive your choice of car due to tax credits that are receivable based on emissions. So if Audi have stolen sales from BMW, Mercedes and JLR then I can imagine the law suits flying….
If VW does have to sell assets then I can see Bentley being a target for BMW, JLR and Mercedes…
Most of Europe has taxes based upon CO2 emissions.
CO2 ≠ NOx emissions.
On DW and BBC I’ve seen a few interviews with Green Party officials who have been asking for testing that is closer to “real world” conditions. This is for all emissions and mileage.
VW has given them the opportunity to push harder.
“..I can see Bentley being a target for BMW….”
Together again, just as Mr. Royce did so long ago.
Is this news? I thought that Audi had been implicated since day 1.
Also, do we know for sure that these cars will need to be upgraded in Europe? I don’t recall seeing any official word on this. To be fair, non-news articles are coming-out every few hours, so I may have missed some real news if it was buried at the end of a piece.
Diesel Audi’s are pretty uncommon from what I’ve seen. But the few I have seen have HUGE “TDI CleanDiesel” decals all over them. Audi should send affected owners a bottle of GooGone.
We need a Skoda total, that will drag the number of “missing” ones down quite a bit, as I bet lots of Skodas are equipped with diesels.
Shocking!
+10,000!