VW Slashes Number of Cars with Falsified CO2 Data

Volkswagen AG says carbon dioxide emission results were falsified on only 36,000 of its 2016 models in Europe—not 800,000 sold over the past two years as it originally estimated.

As a result, the company says it no longer expects to pay an estimated €2 billion ($2.2 billion) for repairs.

VW first discovered the CO₂ issue during a separate investigation into its use of cheater software to evade diesel emission tests for nitrogen oxides affecting 11 million vehicles. VW says the cars had suspiciously low CO₂ numbers, which would increase their fuel economy ratings.

Now VW says none of the 800,000 cars have been unlawfully manipulated and almost all are in compliance with their original emission test results. The company indicates it will adjust for “slight deviations” found in nine VW brand models that represent 0.5% of sales.

The nine vehicles understated their CO₂ emissions by “a few” grams per kilometer and overstated their fuel economy ratings by 0.1-0.2 liters per 100 km, according to the company. The updated list of affected models includes:

• Golf: 2.0-liter diesel with 6-speed manual
• Golf Convertible: 2.0-liter diesel with 5-speed manual
• Jetta: 1.2-liter gasoline engine with 6-speed manual
• Jetta: 2.0-liter diesel with 5-speed manual
• Passat: 1.4-liter gasoline engine with 6-speed manual
• Passat: 2.0-liter (176 kW variant) with 7-speed dual-clutch
• Passat Alltrack: 2.0-liter diesel with 7-speed dual-clutch
• Polo: 1.0-liter gasoline engine with 7-speed dual-clutch
• Scirocco: 2.0-liter diesel with 6-speed manual

These vehicles will be retested later this month and could then be released for sale immediately, according to VW.