Cars and Drivers

Germany Approves Fix for 1.1 Million Volkswagen Vehicles

Paul Ausick

Published: June 8, 2016 8:05 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 7:05 am

Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has approved a plan by Volkswagen Group to modify the software in 1.1 million VW vehicles with the EA 189 two-liter TDI engines. These vehicles are among some 11 million sold worldwide that included software that deliberately gave lower emissions readings when the vehicles were being tested than when they were being used normally.

Last week the KBA approved a fix for more than 800,000 VW-branded vehicles. Wednesday’s announcement covers VW’s Tiguan models and its Caddy commercial vehicles. Volkswagen’s retrofit programs have so far received KBA approval for 2.5 million vehicles in Europe.

VW’s negotiations with U.S. regulators continue. At a court hearing in San Francisco on May 24, the judge overseeing the case said that his June 21 deadline for submitting a proposal to fix 480,000 VW-rigged vehicles is on track to be met. The judge has held to a hard line and the deal to resolve the civil claims related to the emissions-cheating scandal could be worth about $10 billion, according to Automotive News.

In Wednesday’s announcement VW has noted:

For the 1.1 million vehicles recently given the go-ahead, the KBA has confirmed that after the software update there is no change to the fuel consumption levels, performance figures or noise emissions of the affected models. The same also applies to all models previously given the go-ahead for the modification.

VW sold an estimated 8.5 million rigged vehicles in Europe, so the company still has a long way to go before it is finished. These recent approvals apply only to the two-liter version of the EA 189 diesel engine. There are also 1.6-liter and 1.2-liter engines that must be fixed, and VW has delayed a planned second-quarter recall launch on the 1.2-liter vehicles.