VW chief’s testimony sought in new cheating probe

Bloomberg

A US House committee has begun a new investigation into allegations of overseas emissions cheating by Volkswagen AG and was seeking testimony from the automaker’s chief executive officer Herbert Diess.
In a letter, House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, said the committee was investigating reports that Volkswagen “continues to circumvent global emissions requirements” and pointed out that the automaker’s headquarters was recently searched by the German authorities.
“Recently, the Science Committee obtained information from a confidential source supporting the law enforcement actions and raising concerns that VW is perpetuating this scheme in Europe and elsewhere globally,” said the letter, which was also signed by another committee member, Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican.
Information obtained by the committee indicates “that VW continues to struggle to comply with the applicable regulations, particularly in Europe,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter, dated April 12, comes more than two years after VW’s scheme to cheat on US emissions tests was made public, a scandal that rocked Europe’s largest automaker, led to the resignation of its then-chief executive officer and cost the company some $30 billion in fines from authorities and other related costs.
Diess was named the company’s CEO earlier this month, taking over for former chief Matthias Mueller, the Porsche executive tapped to run the automaker after VW boss Martin Winterkorn resigned in 2015 in the wake of the disclosure of the emissions scheme.
A settlement with the US Justice Department placed an independent monitor, Larry Thompson, at VW for three years to oversee the company’s internal reform effort. The monitor’s first report to the Justice Department was critical of how VW has addressed the fallout of the scandal internally.
In a second letter to Diess, dated April 24, Smith asks Diess for a copy of Thompson’s report, which was not made public.
Smith said the committee remained concerned “that the use of stealth technology to avoid regulations could be used by VW or other companies in the future to deceive regulators in the US”
The committee plans to hold a hearing on the use of “advanced technologies to circumvent regulations” in June and requested Diess’ testimony as well as documents and other information from Volkswagen related to research, development and technology used to control emissions as well as current testing data.
A spokeswoman for VW in the US had no immediate comment.