While speaking with a German publication, the new chief executive of the Volkswagen Group, Matthias Muller, confirmed that recalls for its diesel models with emissions cheating software will start in January.
In an interview, Muller said that as it stands, the plan is to begin the worldwide recall of 11 million vehicles in three months.
“If all goes according to plan, we can start the recall in January. All the cars should be fixed by the end of 2016.”
It is currently unclear how Volkswagen intends to fix the faulty cars but in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency will have to agree to the modifications before recalls in the U.S. can commence. It remains to be seen how long that could take,
Of the 11 million cars within the Volkswagen group found to have software to cheat EPA tests in the United States, 5 million come from VW itself while the remaining are from other Volkswagen Group companies Audi (2.1 million), Skoda (1.2 million) and a further 1.8 million light commercial vehicles. Some suggest that the worldwide recall could cost the German conglomerate in excess of 6.5 billion euros.
On Friday 18 September, the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States discovered that Volkswagen had installed software on its cars to cheat EPA emissions testing. They did so by installing software which automatically switched the engine into a cleaner mode when being tested. It is reported that when running normally, the cars emit up to 40 times the pollution limit.
