PETROL-POWERED cars may also have been affected by the emissions-rigging scandal, according to Volkswagen's Spanish brand Seat – this time with carbon dioxide readings hidden rather than nitrous oxide.
The firm has admitted it 'does not know how many' cars are affected, but that although the majority are diesel engines, some use petrol.
And the scam is linked to carbon dioxide this time, meaning it is separate and in addition to the nitrous oxide (NOx) fraud uncovered in September.
This said, cars thought to have been doctored may also carry the NOx-disguising system, but the true extent of the scam is not yet known.
Around 800,000 are thought to have been sold which may carry illegal software designed to mask true CO2 readings when tested and, if the scale of the fraud is the same as the so-called 'Dieselgate', this means around 52,000 on the road in Spain.
Affected models are confirmed as the VW Polo, the VW Golf, the VW Passat, the Audi A-1, Audi A-3, the Seat León, Seat Ibiza and Skoda Oktavia.
The head office of Seat in Martorell (Barcelona province) has confirmed this latest twist in the Volkswagen tale to Spanish reporters, and the right-wing German newspaper Bundestag has revealed that of the 800,000 cars with CO2 emission-masking software, about 98,000 have petrol engines.
The company found out during an in-house investigation, sparked by 'inexplicable inconsistencies' in CO2 emissions readings, and has put aside a total of €2,500 per car - €2 billion in total – to cover its liability for repairing the rigged vehicles.
This is in addition to the €6.7bn needed to rectify the 'Dieselgate' scandal, which involves 10.5 million cars worldwide fitted with systems to disguise their NOx levels.
So far, the 'Dieselgate' has affected 683,626 cars in Spain, mostly VW (just under 257,500), followed closely by Seat (nearly 221,800), but also Audi, Skoda and Vans – overall, 6.5% of the global total.
“The percentage of Seat cars affected by the CO2 software will be relatively small,” assures a spokesperson in Martorell.
A suspected CO2 emission-rigging scandal, which has only just been confirmed, led Spain's ministry of industry to order VW to refund the 'Plan PIVE' grants it had paid out.
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