Volkswagen's Dieselgate also affects Audi - So much for 'Truth in Engineering'

The Volkswagen 'dieselgate' crisis has is not limited to just Volkswagen. Audi, who are part of the group has now admitted that 2.1million of their diesel cars use the same emissions decreasing software that lowers the NOx ratings when the cars detect that they are being tested for emissions. Out of the 2.1million cars, Audi claims that only 13,000 of the cars were sold in America and the rest were sold in Europe. This is really shitty news. You can read it in Reuters too if you think that we're just making things up.

This actually could be part of what Volkswagen had already admitted, i.e, that 11 million VW Group diesels are affected by the scandal (especially the Euro 5 EA189 turbodiesel engine). Skoda, Seat, Volkswagen and Audi use this engine and have confirmed that their cars are affected. All we can now see is the shares for these companies tank a little. However, Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche have denied that they use such defeat tech on their engines. I suppose this is quite obvious as their production numbers are small, they adhere to a stricter set of rules and they don't use tiny four cylinder engines. But we never know.

This issue is now really hitting the fan with Mercedes Benz and BMW issuing statements that they do not have such emission test defeating devices on their vehicles. Even the German government have issued statements regarding this issue. With 70% of BMWs sold in Europe being diesels, you know this is serious. With over 20% of Germany's GDP coming from motor vehicles, a drop in German car sales (mostly diesels in Europe) could create economic recession. This, is shocking indeed. So every one in the industry is keeping an eye out. Including Yours Truly.

It is kind of a blessing that diesels have not caught on in a big way here in South East Asia for passenger cars. But then again, we've just implemented Euro 5 diesel here in Malaysia, that is, as only Euro 4 petrol for RON97. We've still got a long way to go before things get really clean here. So is our Government really concerned? Or are our people concerned? That is another matter. All I know is that the Volkswagen Group, a healthy company has actually shot itself in the guts or committed seppuku. And the lobby against the use of diesel in passenger cars may have gotten the ammunition it needed. 

You know what the ironic thing is? Audi uses the slogan "Truth in Engineering" over in America. The truth hurts like hell doesn't it?