Dieselgate Vw, new software in two weeks and six others for … – Milano Finanza

For Matthias Müller, the new CEO of Volkswagen, demine the dieselgate (as it was renamed in the US) is a top priority. Volkswagen has not yet announced how it intends to re-phase diesel engines equipped with the fraudulent software. But officials close to the issue told the German newspaper Handelsblatt that a crisis plan has already been drawn up and an update of the software should be available within two weeks.

The company is in constant contact with the Federal Authority transport the US to find an acceptable solution. The Authority warned during the weekend that, if it had emerged from Vw a technical solution by 7 October, would withdraw the certification of the vehicles concerned, that they could neither move nor be sold. The Authority’s role is crucial, because if its experts will give their blessing to plans to re-equip VW cars to be recalled, all the other European countries will follow suit, giving instructions to dealers and contacting the owners.

“Since most of the cars affected by dieselgate is in Europe, is likely to be just a software upgrade,” said a senior manager at Handelsblatt Vw. If the company would make a great effort, most of the calling program could be completed in six weeks, he added. Even the component suppliers are working on possible solutions. “In the coming weeks, we will present to the authorities the technical solutions proposed,” said a spokesman for VW to Handelsblatt, “then it will be prepared an operational plan to fix the vehicles of the customers concerned. This will take several weeks.”

The subsidiary Audi has meanwhile released the models affected by dieselgate: are 2.1 million vehicles around the world that meet Euro 5 emissions standards of the European Union. And ‘almost its entire range of products including models A1, A3, A4, A6, TT and sport-utility vehicles Q3 and Q5. The new models are not affected by the problems as they conform to Euro 6, as reported by a spokesman for Audi.

The dieselgate has, among other problems, also it demonstrated that it is counterproductive to have put the pooling of technical platforms and modular assembly, thanks to which the car makers use the same components in a variety of different vehicle types. VW was at the forefront of this trend, which has invested tens of billions of euro in new equipment and technologies. The advantage is that the modular production makes plants more flexible, allowing them to move from assembly of one model to another without costly retooling, thereby saving billions of euro. The risk is that if a key component is defective or, as in this case contains a fraudulent software, the problem infects many models.