Volkswagen UK Boss Defends Response to Diesel Emissions Scandal

The UK boss of Volkswagen has defended the speed of the car firm's response to the diesel emissions scandal and apologised "sincerely and unreservedly" to customers. Paul Willis, the Volkswagen UK managing director, stated that he halted sales within hours of confirming which particular models were affected and could not have acted any faster. The company has admitted that 11 million of its vehicles worldwide are fitted with software that was used to cheat environmental tests in the US, with close to 1.2 million vehicles affected in the UK.

Key Takeaways:

• Over 1,000 cars fitted with pollution test-cheating software were sold in the UK after it emerged that this country was also affected by the issue.
• Volkswagen took out full-page advertisements in newspapers, including The Herald, apologising for breaking the trust of its customers and promising to contact every customer affected directly to resolve the problems.
• Some 400,000 vehicles in the UK need changes to their fuel injection systems, as well as having the software removed, with engineers ordered to ensure the fuel efficiency of the cars involved is not reduced as a result of the changes.
• Paul Willis conceded that there was "some risk" that a target of doing all the remedial work by the end of next year would be missed.
• The company has established an "independent wide-ranging investigation" in Germany to determine whether the deception over testing of VW diesel engines was a high-level corporation decision or a few rogue software engineers acting without the knowledge of senior managers.
• Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin stated that VW "has behaved in an appalling way" and that the company will likely suffer substantial damage as a result of the scandal.

Statistics:

• 11 million Volkswagen vehicles worldwide are fitted with software used to cheat environmental tests in the US.
• Close to 1.2 million vehicles are affected in the UK.
• Over 4,000 cars were sold in the UK with the pollution test-cheating software after the scandal first broke in the US (1,079 cars after it became clear Europe was affected).
• Some 400,000 vehicles in the UK need changes to their fuel injection systems.
• The remedial work is expected to start in the first quarter of next year.

Sources:

• THE UK boss of Volkswagen has defended the speed of the car firm's response to the diesel emissions scandal and apologised "sincerely and unreservedly" to customers. More than 1,000 cars fitted with pollution test-cheating software were sold in the UK after it emerged that this country was also affected by the issue.
• Daily Herald
• Parliamentary Committee on Transport, Chairwoman Louise Ellman
• Volkswagen UK managing director, Paul Willis
• Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin