Volkswagen Says CO2 Manipulations Affect Only About 36,000 Vehicles In Europe

(RTTNews) - German car giant Volkswagen AG (VKW.L, VLKAF.PK, VOW.BE) said Wednesday that it has largely concluded the issues related to carbon dioxide emissions.

During internal remeasurements, Volkswagen found slight deviations on only nine model variants of the Volkswagen brand, with an annual production of about 36,000 vehicles. These model variants correspond to around only 0.5 per cent of the volume of the Volkswagen brand.

According to the company, its earlier figure of about 800,000 vehicles under suspicion has not been confirmed. In early November, Volkswagen had said that it found "irregularities" when determining carbon dioxide emissions levels, which could affect about 800,000 cars in Europe.

Volkswagen added that the negative impact on its earnings of 2 billion euros that was earlier projected by it has also not been confirmed.

After extensive internal investigations and measurement checks, Volkswagen said it found that almost all of these model variants correspond to the carbon dioxide emission figures originally determined. This means that these vehicles can be marketed and sold without any limitations.

The automaker said the suspicion that the fuel consumption figures of current production vehicles had been unlawfully changed was not confirmed.

Volkswagen has presented these results to the investigation commission of the German federal Government and the Federal Motor Transport Authority or KBA.

These model variants will be remeasured by a neutral technical service under the supervision of the appropriate authority by Christmas. In cases where deviations are found from original figures, the figures will be adjusted in the future in the course of the normal processes as required.

Further, Volkswagen's subsidiaries Audi, Skoda and SEAT have also agreed a similar procedure with the approval of authorities responsible for the vehicles initially considered.

Just a couple of months ago, Volkswagen admitted to charges by the U.S. government over installing software to defeat emissions controls on nearly half a million diesel vehicles sold in the U.S. since 2008 to hide true nitrogen oxide emissions of its diesel cars for years. The emissions scandal has hurt Volkswagen shares, leading to government probes.