Audi clears the air on emissions

AUDI Australia has stepped onto the front foot in addressing customer concerns over its Volkswagen Group parent company's emissions-cheating software.

The premium brand has confirmed that 2.1 million of its vehicles fitted with the EA189 two-litre turbo-diesel engine may contain the offending software, of which two million were sold in Europe.

Audi Australia general manager of corporate communications Anna Burgdorf said the local arm was working with its head office to establish what impact the scandal – which involves as many as 11 million VW vehicles globally – has on the Australian-delivered Audis.

Ms Burgdorf said VW Group had also advised that petrol, and certain V6 and V8 turbo-diesel engines were not impacted by the software issue. “The Group has advised that no petrol engines are effected, nor are Euro 6 TDI (diesel) engines models as well as Euro 5 and Euro 6 V6 TDI and V8 TDI models this also applies to the A4 B9 in Europe, which is Euro 6-compliant,” she said.

Audi models potentially fitted with the emissions-cheating software include the A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3 and Q5 either with a EU5 1.6-litre TDI or a 2.0-litre TDI engine.

Ms Burgdorf said the company was investigating the local impact and was aiming to brief federal authorities in the next few days.

“Audi Australia is working as quickly as we can, together with our head office, to analyse the potential effect on Australian vehicles and to inform the government of our investigations to date,” she said.

The company was directing any detailed questions on the software in Australia to the German head office.

“We don't yet know the full effect of the software on Australian vehicles, however it is our understanding that the software is inactive in all Australian vehicles with an EA 189 engine,” she said.

The German luxury car-maker has added extra staff to its customer service centre and extended its service centre operating hours to cope with an expected increase in workload responding to enquiries from customers.

“Our customers are our highest priority at this time and we will be contacting them directly once we have an accurate list of potentially effected vehicles along with an understanding of any potential software effects,” Ms Burgdorf said.

The Audi update comes as Volkswagen announced its action plan to correct the emissions characteristics of diesel vehicles and will present the technical solutions and measures to the responsible authorities in October.

“Customers with these vehicles will be kept informed over the coming weeks and months. All of the Group brands affected will set up national websites to update customers on developments,” the statement said.

Volkswagen Australia is yet to comment in detail on the scandal but Volkswagen's head office has released internal evaluation details of a service procedure required for some five million vehicles from the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand out of a total of eleven million VW Group vehicles impacted worldwide.