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VW halts sales of scandal-related cars

October 21, 2015

German carmaker Volkswagen has announced it has stopped the sale of new vehicles in the EU fitted with the emissions-cheating software. The cars in question will first be fixed and then put up for sale again.

https://p.dw.com/p/1GsFV
Emissions tests
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul

Volkswagen said Wednesday it had completely halted the sale of vehicles in the EU which came equipped with software thwarting diesel-engine emission tests.

The world's largest carmaker explained the move affected a rather limited number of diesel cars with Euro 5 engines held at dealerships across the 28-country bloc. It said the vehicles would be upgraded as soon as possible and then be put up for sale again.

VW reported last week it would recall 8.5 million cars in the EU which could be fitted with banned software installed to get better results during laboratory emission tests.

Crucial reforms

Volkswagen's newly appointed CEO, Matthias Müller, said Wednesday potentially shrinking sales figures in the wake of the pollution scandal would not have any short-term impact on the company's workforce. Latest statistics from Wolfsburg suggested that overall sales had not been dented in October at all.

VW emissions scandal – Crisis for Germany

"For the time being, we have no reason whatsoever to think about the introduction of short-term work at our facilities," Müller said. At the same time, he once again asked customers and politicians to be patient while the firm continued its investigations into who exactly was to blame for the test rigging scandal.

Müller added VW was bending over backwards to create in-house structures suited to prevent such a scandal from happening again.

hg/pad (Reuters, dpa)