Volkswagen scandal: VW engineers admit manipulating CO2 emissions on affected cars
A number of Volkswagen engineers have admitted manipulating the car giant's carbon dioxide emissions data, claiming the targets they were set by former boss Martin Winterkorn were too difficult to achieve.
German newspaper Bild am Sonntag claimed VW enigeers had been tampering with tyre pressure and mixing diesel with motor oil to make them use less fuel over the last two years.
According to Bild, Winterkorn declared at the Geneva auto show in March 2012 that VW wanted to reduce its CO2 emissions by 30 percent by 2015 – a figure that engineers did think was possible to achieve. The paper claimed they "cheated out of fear of the big boss".
Volkswagen is conducting an internal investigation into the handling of all its pollution-related issues since it was revealed in September that the firm had been installing "detect devices", which enabled cars to cheat on emissions tests in its diesel cars.
Last week it emerged that there were "irregularities" in its CO2 levels too.