Almost half of the Volkswagen cars in Europe affected by the diesel emissions scandal require major hardware changes – such as the installation of a new tank - in order to meet pollution standards.
The revelation by the German transport ministry that 3.6m cars in Europe require hardware changes underlines the scale and expense of the repairs that will be required as a result of the scandal.
Michael Horn, the boss of VW in America, told a congressional hearing on Thursday that the hardware fix was “complex” and could involve a new tank being fitted to cars.
Horn insisted that the performance of the car should not be affected by the repairs but revealed that Volkswagen was considering offering full refunds to customers who did not want their car back.
VW has admitted that 11m vehicles worldwide, including 8m in Europe and 1.2m in the UK, were fitted with defeat devices that allowed them to cheat emissions tests. The carmaker has put aside €6.5bn (£4.8bn) to meet the cost of recalling the cars and commercial vehicles, but it also faces the threat of fines of up to $18bn (£11.7bn) from the US and legal action from shareholders and motorists.
The defeat device is a line of software code hidden within the cars system that recognised when it was being tested. Some of the vehicles involved in the scandal can be fixed by rewriting the code, but others will require more significant repairs.
The transport ministry in Germany said that 3.6m vehicles with 1.6-litre engines will require hardware changes. It is unclear at this stage if cars with other engines will also require the hardware repairs.
