Volkswagen official says emissions fix may take a year

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of owners of Volkswagen diesel cars that skirt emissions standards may have to wait a year or more to get their cars fixed, the head of the automaker's US unit said at a contentious House hearing on Thursday.

Michael Horn, the automaker's top official in the United States, testified before an Energy and Commerce subcommittee that most of the more than 480,000 affected cars in the United States will need a "major fix," including a hardware and software change. That repair, which would be applicable to almost 70 percent of those vehicles, may consume as many as 10 hours of work per car and might not get started until next year. The remaining vehicles are expected to get fixed next year, he said.

"This is pretty shocking for people," said Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, expressing dismay at the scandal and demanding a specific timeline for fixes. "Asking customers for patience is really just not sufficient."

Some lawmakers asked Horn why Volkswagen did not replace the vehicles — a costly proposition — and, although he emphasized repairs, he said Volkswagen might consider an option like a buyback.

"Our plan is not to buy back the inventory," he said. "Our plan is to fix the cars."

More than 11 million cars worldwide were outfitted with engine software, also known as a defeat device, meant to fool testers into thinking that certain diesel vehicles met pollution standards. Although Horn expressed remorse for the deception and even said he felt deceived by the scandal, he came under withering criticism from lawmakers for not delivering a concrete deadline for fixing most of the cars, or simply to provide more details about how the scheme was conceived and who was responsible.

In response to questioning by Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, Horn said that neither Volkswagen's supervisory board nor its top executives ordered the emissions deception. Instead, he attributed the decision to "a couple of software engineers who put this in for whatever reason."

After an incredulous Barton expressed doubts that top Volkswagen executives in Germany were unaware of the cheating before September, Horn did not argue.

"I agree it is very hard to believe," he said.

"This was not a corporate decision," Horn said. "This was something individuals did."

His comments echoed recent statements by Volkswagen's new chief executive, Matthias Mueller, who said that only a few employees at the company had been aware of the cheating.

The hearing was held on the same day that German investigators searched Volkswagen's Wolfsburg headquarters and elsewhere. State prosecutors in Braunschweig said in a statement that they were looking for documents and data storage that would give them clues as to who might have been responsible for the decision to install the software that led to the emissions cheating.

Acting on complaints filed by several citizens, as well as officials at Volkswagen, prosecutors have begun a preliminary investigation against employees, who have not been identified, on suspicion of fraud.

Volkswagen said in a statement that it had "handed over a complete collection of documents pertaining to authorities' investigation." A complaint by the company itself was one of several filed to prosecutors in Braunschweig in connection with the emissions scandal, and Volkswagen has pledged to support the investigation by German authorities.

Volkswagen has admitted that it programmed the cars to sense when emissions were being tested and to switch on equipment to reduce them. But during normal driving conditions, when the vehicles had better performance, they produced as much as 40 times the acceptable amount of a pollutant, nitrogen oxide, that can contribute to respiratory problems.

Horn deflected demands by the House subcommittee for more information. He repeatedly reminded lawmakers that, as the chief of Volkswagen's US unit, he could not make promises for Volkswagen headquarters to turn over documents. He noted that there were "quite a number of people above me."

Volkswagen has been asked to turn over documents to the committee by Tuesday.

Repeatedly, Horn expressed his remorse to lawmakers.

"I did not think that something like this was possible at the Volkswagen Group," Horn said. "We have broken the trust of our customers, dealerships, and employees, as well as the public and regulators." Volkswagen, he said, took responsibility for its actions and will work with investigators.

But lawmakers were not mollified.

"VW will inevitably pay a steep price for its dirty little secret," said Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, who is chairman of the full committee on Energy and Commerce. "We will get some additional insight today, but the committee's investigation is just beginning."

Two officials from the EPA also testified before the panel Thursday, separately from Horn and to a less hostile reception. One of the officials, Christopher Grundler, director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality at the EPA, acknowledged that the agency had failed to detect the cheating in the first place — it was found by the International Council on Clean Transportation in conjunction with a laboratory at West Virginia University.

"We've learned from this episode, for sure," he said. "We wish we had found it sooner."

When pressed by Representative Diana DeGette of Colorado, the top Democrat on the subcommittee, about what specific changes the agency was making in its testing to prevent a similar scandal, Grundler replied, "Bottom line, madam, is that we are going to be unpredictable."

Lawmakers were eager for answers, not only to questions about the remedy, but also to what punishment Volkswagen would face. Under the Clean Air Act, Volkswagen faces up to $18 billion in penalties for selling the polluting cars, which extend back to the 2009 model year.

"What part of this don't you know already?" asked Schakowsky, her voice rising with frustration as she pressed Grundler to say whether and how Volkswagen would be punished as unfixed cars remained on the road.

"We don't know the why, the what, the where, who was responsible," Grundler said, explaining that penalties would be assessed as part of the agency's investigation.