The new engines have a different tech ( not the original "cheat" software) which is under evaluation by agencies with a possibility of this latest one being declared illegal too.

If the latest tech is illegal too, then I think it will be either "goodbye" VW as we've come to know it or most probably Herr Schaueble will have to find many tens of billions to salvage this automotive giant.

"The software at issue makes a pollution-control catalyst heat up faster, improving performance of the device that separates smog-causing nitrogen oxide into nitrogen and oxygen gases.

“This has the function of a warmup strategy which is subject to approval by the agencies,” said Jeannine Ginivan, a VW spokeswoman. “The agencies are currently evaluating this and Volkswagen is submitting additional information.”

Automakers routinely place auxiliary emissions control devices on passenger vehicles, though they are required by law to disclose them as part of the process to receive the emissions certifications that are required to sell the cars.

EPA’s McCabe wouldn not say if VW’s failure to disclose the software in its 2016 applications was illegal. “I don’t want to speak to any potential subjects of an enforcement activity,” she said.

If VW was cheating a second time, that would probably mean higher fines against the company, Karl Brauer, a senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book.

Regulators are “going to be even more angry than they already are”, Brauer said. “The punitive actions from the EPA are only going to get more aggressive.”

The German automaker already faces up to $18bn in potential fines over the nearly half-million vehicles sold with the initial emissions-rigging software."

On a different note IMO the VW management should face criminal charges at some point because what they've done goes beyond a petty swindle. It will affect the national economy and to an extent the EU economy too.


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"Form follows function"