Volkswagen Says Newer Diesels May Have Illegal Defeat Device, Too

Volkswagen said Thursday that early versions of its EA 288 engines could have been equipped with the illegal emissions software at the heart of its diesel scandal, Reuters reported (via Automotive News).

The revelation would largely affect European cars, and could potentially expand the list of 11 million cars Volkswagen will be forced to recall this year.

U.S. cars using the “Generation 3” engine, which include 2015 models of the Volkswagen Golf, Jetta, Beetle and Passat and Audi A3, were already included in the stop-sale and notification by the Environmental Protection Agency.

According to the automaker, Volkswagen and Audi cars fitted with the EA 288 engine designed to meet Euro 5 emissions standards may have had the software installed. Cars built to comply with more stringent, Euro 6 standards do not have the software.

“I think it is a big problem,” Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, head of the Center of Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, told Reuters. Volkswagen didn’t say how many cars could be affected by the newly uncovered information, which doesn’t bode well for the automaker.

“It suggests it doesn’t know its product, which is a tragedy,” he added.

According to Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn, who testified in front of a congressional committee Oct. 8, “Generation 3” cars with the EA 288 engine could be fixed in early 2016 with a software change. Older cars with the EA 189 engine, which was the predecessor to the EA 288, would take significantly longer to fix, Horn said.

The automaker said roughly 482,000 cars in the U.S. were affected by the cheating scandal. The vast majority of those cars — more than 75 percent — were older, first- and second-generation models.