New emissions cheating software may lurk in Audis

The investigation into emissions fraud at Volkswagen widened on Saturday after the company acknowledged that United States and German regulators were examining why some Audi luxury cars and sport utility vehicles behaved differently during tests than they did on the road.

The disclosure raises suspicions that Volkswagen used a new type of emissions cheating software in some Audis. Volkswagen is already in deep trouble for programming 11 million diesel cars worldwide to provide artificially low emissions levels during official tests, and then lying to regulators in the United States for more than a year after officials noticed discrepancies. 

The company, which has agreed to pay $16.5 billion to settle lawsuits by owners and dealers in the United States, could face further severe consequences if it turns out that the fraud was more widespread than previously believed and that the company has failed to be forthright with officials. 

In a statement on Saturday, Volkswagen tacitly confirmed a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that some Audis with automatic transmissions behaved differently when the cars were being tested. 

If the software that controlled the transmission detected testing conditions, according to the newspaper, the cars shifted in a way that would produce less carbon dioxide. In normal use, the cars used a shifting sequence intended to provide better performance.

Audi did not identify the models involved. According to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Audi owners in United States District Court in Minnesota on Thursday, they include 100,000 Audi A6 and A8 luxury sedans and Q5 and Q7 SUVs with 3-liter gasoline engines manufactured through May. 

The cars sensed that they were undergoing stationary tests on rollers if the steering wheel did not move more than 15 degrees. Representatives for Volkswagen and its Audi division acknowledged that regulators were looking at why some models shifted differently during tests. 

But the company suggested that any discrepancies were not a deliberate attempt to cheat. “In the testing situation,” Audi said in a statement on Saturday, “dynamic shift programs can lead to incorrect readings and results that cannot be reproduced.”

Volkswagen admitted last year that it had manipulated 11 million diesel cars, including 500,000 in the United States, to grossly understate emissions of nitrogen oxides, which cause lung ailments and contribute to smog and global warming. The latest accusations involve emissions of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming. 

© 2016 The New York Times News Service