Audi to update diesel software

Audi said it told US regulators that its 3-liter diesel cars contained software that it had not previously revealed to authorities when obtaining regulatory approval. One of those programs could be considered to be a "defeat device" under US law.

Audi's parent company Volkswagen had previously maintained that the emissions scandal was confined to its 2-liter diesel engines, while denying that larger engines manufactured by sister company Audi contained similar defeat devices.

While Audi admitted it did not initially reveal the programs in the 3-liter engines to US authorities, it denied that the software was meant to manipulate emissions. A company spokesman said that cars in question could not detect whether they were on the road or being tested in the lab, which by contrast the illegal VW software could do.

The software affects Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche models reaching back to 2009, impacting approximately 85,000 cars in the United States.

Audi said the repairs would cover the so called auxiliary emission control devices (AECDs) for 3-liter V6 diesel cars that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had seen as violating US emissions laws.

The upscale brand of embattled German auto giant Volkswagen "estimates that the related expense will be in the mid-double-digit millions of euros," the company said in a news release.

12-brand Volkswagen faces the task of recalling 11 million vehicles worldwide with devices designed to cheat pollution tests.

tko/hg (AFP, dpa)