New searches at Volkswagen. Investigators from the prosecutor’s office in Braunschweig searched and seized documents in 13 offices at the manufacturer’s headquarters in Wolfsburg in early March, the weekly Wirtschaftswoche reported on Tuesday.
The prosecution suspects the group of having published in December 2015 false information on the CO2 emission levels of some of its vehicles to calm the markets. A few weeks earlier, the title of the builder had already plunged on the stock market after the fire of “Dieselgate” triggered in the United States in September.
But this time, no question of NOx, these nitrogen oxides which Volkswagen has manipulated the emission values on 11 million diesel vehicles around the world to circumvent the anti-pollution tests. Here, investigators are interested in the erroneous CO2 emission values of some of the group’s vehicles, which Volkswagen has downplayed.
Minimized errors
Bonus Malus
The CO2 emissions, from which the ecological malus / bonus systems are calculated, have consequences for the tax revenues of the states.
“Volkswagen is convinced that it has duly fulfilled its regulatory obligations in terms of information,” reacted Tuesday the manufacturer, who refuses to comment further on the procedure.
This new investigation adds to a series of open proceedings against Volkswagen since the revelations of the “dieselgate” more than two years ago. For example, the Brunswick prosecutor’s office seeks to determine whether informed markets too late handling of diesel engines.