Engineers are said to have revised the ‘defeat’ software to work with four different variations of VW’s EA189 and EA288 diesel engines, which power a long list of models sold by VW, Audi, Skoda and SEAT, unnamed insiders told Reuters. The software was allegedly further refined to beat the different emissions-testing protocols in use by US and European regulators.
Despite the persistent leaks related to VW’s ongoing investigation, the company has refused to identify who knew of and approved the cheating practices. Engineers are presumably behind the software itself, however many analysts familiar with VW’s corporate structure have suggested it is extremely unlikely that a few rogue employees implemented such technology without direction or approval from higher managers.
“We are working intensely to investigate who knew what and when, but it’s far too early to tell,” VW said in a statement to Reuters.
Costs of emissions hardware refits, government penalties and civil lawsuits could reach into the tens of billions, with separate investigations by multiple agencies in the US and abroad.
Leave a Reply