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Dieselgate: 11 Million Vehicles Affected; Winterkorn Resigns

by Frédérick Boucher-Gaulin
Photo: Bloomberg

Things are going from bad to worse for VW, and it looks like their diesel problems are far from over.

After the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) announced that the German manufacturer had installed software in its diesel-equipped cars that limits nitrogen oxide emissions when it detects the car is undergoing an emission test, it was discovered than 482,000 cars were affected in the United States.

In a recent press release by the manufacturer, it seems that the situation is even worse.

Volkswagen states that no less than 11 million vehicles (so pretty much every car with the EA 189 engine) have the ‘’cheating software’’ built-in, although it is unused in vehicles that are not sold in the United States.

However, it is important to note that Volkswagen has been upfront about the whole thing; they announced that they would set aside a cool 6.5 billion euros for the inevitable recall of their TDIs.

Obviously, VW will suffer from this whole situation: their stock plummeted 35% in the last few days, and it’s been announced that CEO Martin Winterkorn has stepped down from his position.

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