Volkswagen Group Australia (VGA) has suspended sales of some vehicles amidst the global diesel emissions scandal.
It announced that, “affected vehicles” would be covered by the “temporary suspension of sale,” which has come into force immediately.
Volkswagen, which includes Audi and Skoda amongst its brand line-up – was forced to admit it used ECU software that ran diesel engines during emissions tests in a hyper-clean mode to trick regulators.
Senior engineers have been stood down and former chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned over the damning evidence it had misled customers and environmental agencies with the ‘defeat device.’
Federal agencies have met with VGA, which said in a statement that it sought to “advise them of its strategy in Australia to address concerns that have been raised around the world regarding the diesel emissions issue.”
“In its first step, effective immediately VGA has temporarily suspended the sale of affected vehicles fitted with 1.6 or 2.0-litre EA189 diesel engines.
“The suspension will remain until the emission issues are addressed in those vehicles.”
More than 40,000 Australian VWs may be caught up in the dodgy diesel saga, but VGA would not confirm this estimate.
Across the ditch, Volkswagen New Zealand general manager Tom Ruddenklau said the company would start contact existing customers with the dodgy diesel engine by the end of this week.
While the Kiwi distributor hasn’t confirmed numbers, it did say that it had stopped the sale of 36 vehicles fitted with illegal emissions testing cheat software.
He said the sale of 21 Tiguan SUVs and 15 Caddy vans has been halted, as the global vehicle count tops 11 million.
Ruddenklau said the company would have to work very hard to regain the trust of its customers.
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