Volkswagen to change diesel emissions technology
Staff
General DPNVolkswagen's flagship brand will switch to new diesel emissions technology in Europe and North America as well as cut a billion euros ($1.1 billion) in annual investment spending.
VW brand head Herbert Diess made the announcement Tuesday as the company struggles to overcome a scandal over cars equipped with computer software that let them evade U.S. emissions tests.
Diess said the company would change its diesel technology in Europe and North America and install technology that uses a urea solution called AdBlue to reduce diesel emissions. He said that change would come “as soon as possible.”
He also said the company would extend its low-cost manufacturing techniques and reduce spending on investments.
The governor of Germany’s Lower Saxony state, which holds a minority stake in Volkswagen, says the automaker should have admitted earlier that it manipulated emissions data in diesel vehicles.
VW acknowledged the deception to U.S. regulators on Sept. 3, more than a year after researchers published a study showing the real-world emissions of two VW models were far higher than allowed.
Governor Stephan Weil told Lower Saxony’s state legislature on Tuesday that “this confession should clearly have come a great deal earlier – another serious mistake, news agency dpa reported.
Lower Saxony holds a 20 per cent stake and Weil sits on Volkswagen’s board of directors. He has said that the state’s representatives were “completely surprised” by the emissions scandal and vowed to work to protect jobs.
