2.1 million of Audi’s diesel cars worldwide are fitted with emissions cheat devices

Volkswagen's top-of-the-range automaker Audi today admitted that 2.1million of its diesel cars worldwide are fitted with the sophisticated software enabling them to cheat emission tests. Some 1.42 million Audi vehicles with so-called EU5 engines are affected in Western Europe, with 577,000 in Germany and almost 13,000 in the United States, an Audi spokesman said. Affected model lines include the A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3 and Q5.
The announcement came as German prosecutors today opened a Fraud investigation against former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn to establish what his role was in the company's emissions-rigging scandal. VW sparked global outrage last week when it admitted that 11 million of its diesel cars are fitted with so-called defeat devices that activate pollution controls during tests but covertly turn them off when the car is on the road.
The investigation will concentrate on the suspicion of fraud committed through the sale of vehicles with manipulated emissions data and aims to determine who was responsible, prosecutors in Braunschweig said in a statement.
Winterkorn, Volkswagen's CEO since 2007, resigned on Wednesday – days after the world's top-selling carmaker admitted that it had rigged diesel emissions to pass U.S. tests during his tenure.  He said that he was going 'in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrongdoing on my part.' You can read the story here.
Meanwhile, an environmental campaign group today claimed that new European cars are spewing out on average 40 per cent more carbon dioxide than laboratory tests show, saying Volkswagen’s rigging of emissions tests was only part of much wider cheating.
In late morning trade on the Frankfurt stock exchange, VW shares – which took a battering last week after the company admitted to installing emission-test cheating devices in its diesel engines – plunged 6.9 per cent to an intraday low of €99.85.
According to German media reports at the weekend, Volkswagen ignored warnings from staff and a supplier years ago that the emission test rigging software – which sparked the company's worst ever scandal – was illegal.

Source: DailyMail