VW has repaired 80% of recalled cars, says European Commission

Volkswagen has now repaired some 80 per cent of the 8.5 million cars recalled after the “dieselgate” scandal, the European Commission and national consumer protection authorities say.

They welcome the extent of the recall and the company’s commitment to rebuilding trust and its commitment to continue the free-of-charge update until the end of 2020.

But the commission and the consumer authorities regret that the company has not been able to give a full and clear guarantee in case of problems after the repair. Volkswagen has also not provided a full and clear guarantee that the update is not affecting the cars’ performance, the commission said.

Commissioner for justice, consumers and gender equality, Vera Jourová, said:

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Dieselgate

“We have worked hard to make VW more proactive with EU consumers affected by the ‘dieselgate’ scandal. VW fulfilled the action plan they promised to me, but that was all. This is again a reminder of the need for stronger rules on individual redress in the EU, including collective actions.”

The rate of recall varies from 96 per cent in Germany to 35 per cent in Romania.

The Volkswagen emissions scandal began in September 2015, when the US Environment Protection Agency reported that Volkswagen had intentionally programmed diesel engines in most of their cars to activate diesel emission controls only during lab testing. The result was that NO2 emissions output met US standards during regulatory testing, but engines produced up to 40 times more NO2 in real-world driving.

The company was forced into a major worldwide recall.