American authorities have found three unapproved software programmes in 3.0 litre diesel engines made by Volkswagen, reports German weekly Bild am Sonntag.
The software allowed the turbocharged direct injection engines used in Audi’s Q7, Porsche’s Cayenne and VW’s Touareg models to shut down emissions control systems after about 22 minutes, and tests to measure emissions usually last about 20 minutes.
Volkswagen has admitted it cheated on U.S. diesel emissions tests for years and said in June it would spend as much as $15.3 billion (£11.71 billion) buying back vehicles from consumers and providing funding that could benefit makers of cleaner technologies.
That settlement however would not address about 85,000 larger 3.0 litre Audi, Porsche and VW vehicles that emitted less pollution than 2.0 litre vehicles but were also fitted with illegal emissions-control equipment.
Audi and Volkswagen notified U.S. authorities about these vehicles last year. A deal covering the 3.0 litre vehicles may still be months away.
