The local Volkswagen importer refuses to say whether vehicles on Maltese roads could have been affected by the emissions scandal that has rocked the world’s biggest carmaker.
Volkswagen said on Tuesday 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide might have been fitted with software to trick testers into believing the cars met environmental standards. The company said it had set aside €6.5 billion to deal with the matter.
The scandal surfaced in the US, where the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said cars had been fitted with software to switch engines to a cleaner mode during official emissions testing. Once on the road, the cars produced nitrogen oxide at up to 40 times the legal standard.
According to the EPA, Volkswagen Jetta, Beetle, Audi A3, Golf and Passat models manufactured between 2009 and this year could have been fitted with this type of software, known as a ‘defeat device’.
The 68-year-old chief executive of the Wolfsburg-based car company, Martin Winterkorn, resigned yesterday saying he wanted to clear the way for a fresh start.
Continental Cars Limited referred this newspaper to the statement issued by the mother company in Germany earlier this month. Questions on what measures were being taken to verify whether any of the Volkswagen models it had imported to Malta could be affected remained unanswered by the time of writing.
The scandal has prompted calls for stricter testing in Europe, where diesel cars account for nearly half the new cars sold. In the US they have three per cent of the market share. For the time being, however, the European Commission is saying it is still premature to talk about tangible measures to tighten emission controls.
A spokesman for European Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella yesterday told the Times of Malta member states should carry out their own investigations and report back. He said Mr Vella was willing to collaborate and share information with the commissioner responsible for the internal market, industry and entrepreneurship.
While fuel economy and low carbon emissions make diesel-powered cars an attractive proposition, they also emit more nitrogen dioxide - a toxic gas blamed for some health problems. Any suggestion that their emissions in real world conditions are worse than official tests could have serious repercussions on the sector and alter the future of Europe’s auto industry.
Additional reporting by Reuters and Philip Leone Ganado in Brussels.