Older VW diesels will need software and hardware fixes, Horn tells lawmakers

WASHINGTON -- A software fix won’t be enough to bring most of Volkswagen's 482,000 vehicles that violate diesel emissions rules into compliance with U.S. clean air laws, Volkswagen Group of America CEO Michael Horn testified in a congressional hearing today.

Horn told lawmakers on a U.S. House oversight subcommittee that hardware changes and software changes will be needed for the cars equipped with the first generation of VW’s EA189 2.0-liter turbodiesel, starting with the 2009 VW Jetta TDI.

“We know we can fix these vehicles” to satisfy emissions standards, Horn said.

About 325,000 VWs have the first-generation 2.0-liter diesel, while 90,000 use the second-generation engine, including the 2012 Passat diesel, according to a VW spokeswoman. About 67,000 vehicles from the 2015 model year forward use the third-generation diesel engine. The third-generation engines do meet emissions standards and can be made compliant with a software change alone, Horn said.

Customers receiving repairs should expect to maintain the EPA fuel economy ratings on their vehicles after receiving a fix, though performance may be impacted, Horn told lawmakers.

Repairs might take 5 to 10 hours on the older cars needing hardware changes, Horn said. All told, it could be more than a year until all the repairs are complete, citing the low rate of recall participation in the U.S. and other complexities, Horn said.

Apologies

In his testimony, Horn apologized for the violations and strongly denied he was aware of the software that regulators now say helped 482,000 VW diesel vehicles skirt U.S. emissions rules.

He said the use of the defeat software in diesel cars was not a corporate decision, but something that "individuals did."

"This was a couple of software engineers who put this in for whatever reason," he said.

In his opening statement, Horn said he was told in early 2014 of a “possible emissions non-compliance that could be remedied” when West Virginia University published research showing two VW diesels emitted far more emissions in real-world driving than in lab tests. However, Horn said, he had no knowledge at the time that the vehicles contained the so-called defeat devices.

In July 2014, Horn said, VW engineers confirmed that the results of the WVU study were correct and said a software change was being prepared to address the issue.

“I was not then told nor did I have any reason to suspect or to believe that our vehicles had such a device,” Horn told members of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

In questioning, Horn said he first learned of the defeat devices a couple of days before VW’s Sept. 3 meeting with the EPA and the California Air Resources Board during which the devices were disclosed to regulators.

Global pressure

The hearing comes as VW faces mounting pressure from the U.S. government on multiple fronts in the wake of its diesel emissions violations. Probes by the EPA and CARB are ongoing after the clean air regulators disclosed VW’s violations on Sept. 18.

The Department of Justice has reportedly opened a criminal probe in the matter, while bipartisan leaders from the Senate Finance Committee have opened a probe into whether VW made false representations to the government in its push to qualify its 2009 Jetta diesel for a $1,300 clean car tax credit.

The crisis has upended the company globally, sending its stock price tumbling and prompting a management shake-up, with the VW board naming Matthias Mueller as company CEO following the resignation of former chief Martin Winterkorn. Some 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide contain the illegal software, VW has said, and the company plans to launch a global recall to address the problem soon.

Mueller told a German newspaper this week that a recall could begin as early as January, but a VW of America spokeswoman said that timeline applies only to European-market models.

The EPA and CARB must validate and sign off on VW’s repair plans before they can be offered to U.S. customers. Horn said the third-generation diesel cars, starting with the 2015 model year, could begin to be repaired as early as January. Repairs on older cars will begin later given the technical complexity of the anticipated repairs, Horn said.

Withdrawn application

This week, VW also withdrew an EPA application to certify 2016 models with 2.0-liter engines comply with U.S. emissions standards.

Without EPA certification, the cars and light trucks can’t be sold, which likely means there will be a longer-than-expected wait for the diesel models.

VW had been awaiting EPA approval for the 2016 diesels, but withdrew its request as part of ongoing discussions with U.S. regulators following the emissions violations.