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VOLKSWAGEN SCANDAL

ENVIRONMENT

2.8 million ‘manipulated’ VWs on German roads

Almost three million Volkswagen diesel cars included software that allowed them to foil regulators' emissions tests, the German government said on Friday.

Published: 25 September 2015 15:59 CEST

2.8 million 'manipulated' VWs on German roads

Volkswagen workers' cars sit outside the company's Wolfsburg headquarters. Photo: DPA

Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt told the Bundestag (German parliament) on Friday that 2.8 million cars were caught up in the scandal.

The number of cars affected by the cheating in Germany dwarfs the 500,000-odd vehicles believed to have had the software installed in the USA.

“From what we know currently, not only passenger cars but small utility vehicles by Volkswagen are also affected,” Dobrindt said, adding that diesel engines involved include 1.2 litre, 1.6 litre and 2.0 models.

The minister added that the government will ensure that Volkswagen provides “transparency as well as repairs the damage” caused by the deception.

The company admitted earlier this week that 11 million of its diesel vehicles worldwide are equipped with the software that covertly turns on pollution controls when the car is being tested, and off when it is being driven.

It is unclear which countries have been affected and which models of diesel are involved.

According to the US probe announced last Friday — which had led to the revelations – Volkswagen and Audi cars are affected.

However, the Volkswagen group also owns several other brands including SEAT, Skoda and Porsche.

Sweden's SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå

“The transformation of Luleå is a major step on our journey to fossil-free steel production,” the company’s chief executive, Martin Lindqvist, said in a press release. “We will remove seven percent of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, strengthen our competitiveness and secure jobs with the most cost-effective and sustainable sheet metal production in Europe.”

The new mini-mill, which is expected to start production at the end of 2028 and to hit full capacity in 2029, will include two electric arc furnaces, advanced secondary metallurgy, a direct strip rolling mill to produce SSABs specialty products, and a cold rolling complex to develop premium products for the transport industry.

It will be fed partly from hydrogen reduced iron ore produced at the HYBRIT joint venture in Gälliväre and partly with scrap steel. The company hopes to receive its environemntal permits by the end of 2024.

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The announcement comes just one week after SSAB revealed that it was seeking $500m in funding from the US government to develop a second HYBRIT manufacturing facility, using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels to produce direct reduced iron and steel.

The company said it also hoped to expand capacity at SSAB’s steel mill in Montpelier, Iowa.

The two new investment announcements strengthen the company’s claim to be the global pioneer in fossil-free steel.

It produced the world’s first sponge iron made with hydrogen instead of coke at its Hybrit pilot plant in Luleå in 2021. Gälliväre was chosen that same year as the site for the world’s first industrial scale plant using the technology.

In 2023, SSAB announced it would transform its steel mill in Oxelösund to fossil-free production.

The company’s Raahe mill in Finland, which currently has new most advanced equipment, will be the last of the company’s big plants to shift away from blast furnaces.

The steel industry currently produces 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and shifting to hydrogen reduced steel and closing blast furnaces will reduce Sweden’s carbon emissions by 10 per cent and Finland’s by 7 per cent.

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