Customers who buy a VW buying a car planning, you have to expect trouble. For models with hybrid and natural gas drive currently no orders would be accepted, said a VW spokesman. Previously, the “Welt am Sonntag” had reported on the topic. Reason for the stop are problems with new exhaust gas tests. VW also pointed to model changes and technical changes, which led to the inconvenience to customers. Hybrid vehicles are expected in 2019, natural gas cars already in the fourth quarter of 2018 again ordered, said the spokesman.
VW as well as other manufacturers do not make it, all vehicles after the new exhaust test WLTP (“Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure”). At VW, therefore, according to earlier information, it is estimated that 200,000 to 250,000 cars will be built and delivered late throughout the Group.
For long delivery times of currently up to seven months, according to the speaker Buyers of pure electric vehicles to adjust. He spoke of a “quite high demand”, because of which several times the capacity had been increased. “But of course we continue to accept orders for electric vehicles,” the spokesman said.
Gasoline engines are equipped with particle filters
“We will be able to offer 30 to 50 percent fewer variants over three months,” said VW boss Herbert Diess a few days ago. In total, more than 260 engine and gearbox combinations must be re-measured and re-registered.
According to information from June, the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) expects that more than 500 permits are still outstanding. Critics accuse the automakers, they had not responded to the new situation in time. The industry itself blames the policy for the problems: the manufacturers had received the process description only eleven months ago, “a relatively short period of time,” criticized VDA President Bernhard Mattes a few weeks ago.
The fact that there will be a new test cycle in the EU has been established since November 2007. At that time, the Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) decided to introduce a globally harmonized test for passenger cars and passenger cars commercial vehicles to develop. For all new vehicle types, the WLTP has been in operation since September of last year, now it becomes mandatory for all new vehicles. The WLTP is about finding more realistic consumption and CO2 levels. In addition, one year later, a real test becomes compulsory, in which driving is measured on the road (“Real Driving Emissions”, RDE).
In addition, new particle limits were issued earlier than expected, said VDA boss Mattes. “That has led many manufacturers to additionally equip gasoline engines with a particulate filter.” For years, gasoline engines were considered to be inconspicuous in comparison to diesel particulates. Only through the development of modern direct injection, which have the advantage of saving fuel, the particle problem came up. When air and gas are mixed in the combustion chambers, the smallest particles of soot, which are harmful to human health, form. The new limit value does not allow gasoline engines to produce more particulate matter than diesel models.
German manufacturers under suspicion of cartel
In the past, according to information of the SPIEGEL Daimler . Volkswagen . BMW . Audi and Porsche denied, to dispense with the use of particle filters in gasoline engines. The EU Competition Commission found appropriate evidence in documents that were found in various house searches of the manufacturers. With their agreements, the manufacturers may have violated competition law. That’s what the Commission is investigating. In addition, the use of effective filter systems could have been delayed by years. A competition for the use of modern technology did not take place. The manufacturers could have advertised with the environmentally friendly filter when selling their models.