European regulators have given the Volkswagen Group a deadline of 10 days when the carmaker can offer any additional information regarding the CO2 emissions irregularities that were found in a massive number of 800,000 cars sold in Europe, as Wall Street Journal announced.
Last week, the German carmaker stated that it had actually understated the CO2 emissions in its VW, Seat and Skoda cars sold in Europe, worsening the scandal in which it is involved, scandal launched by an admission of rigging nitrogen oxide tests for car pollution a few months ago. The new disclosure regarding the CO2 emissions could be more serious than the former emissions scandal as European countries like Germany, France and the U.K. have road taxes applied in relation to the CO2 emissions. Moreover, the European Union also has certain CO2 emission targets for automakers and if VW’s lies miss EU’s target, the carmaker could face penalties from the union.
Miguel Arias Canete, EU’s climate and energy commissioner, wrote to VW’s new CEO, Matthias Mueller, asking for more information on which car models and how many of them are affected by these irregularities and the amount by which the emissions were understated. Canete also demanded VW to notify the EU when the vehicle documents would be updated with the true CO2 emissions, asking for a reply in no more than 10 days.
Volkswagen has recently announced it will pay for the extra taxes its drivers are going to encounter after the CO2 deception and added around $2.1 billion in financial risk besides the former $7.1 billion set aside to repair any products after the cheating software scandal started.