Green light for case in VW scandal

Tuesday's report suggests Volkswagen may emerge from the scandal with little more than a dent in its image, which the executives in Wolfsburg, Germany, have set out to fix by launching a massive PR campaign that ranges from creating more transparency to rolling out a major recall beginning next month.

Volkswagen has said there are around 11 million diesel vehicles world-wide with the installed software that manipulates emissions, allowing vehicles to perform better on tests than on the road.

All 1.2- and 2.0-liter engines will get a software update that should take about half an hour, while the 1.6-liter TDI will get the software update and a "flow rectifier" in front of the air mass sensor.

"The technical solutions for other markets, however, remain open, and especially in the US the related costs may be a lot higher", he told Bloomberg.

Volkswagen's rose as much as 1.1 per cent and were trading up 0.8 per cent at €126 (RM591) as of 4pm in Frankfurt.

Volkswagen says it expects to start notifying affected customers in the next few weeks. Work will start on the 1.6-litre vehicles that need the hardware fix by the third quarter of next year, Volkswagen said.

The EU anti-fraud office OLAF said Wednesday its investigating loans Volkswagen received from the European Investment Bank to produce cleaner engines. VW has admitted to rigging nearly 500,000 diesel cars with 2-liter diesel engines in the U.S.to beat emissions tests, and its 3-liter engines have come under suspicion as well.

The affected vehicles will be called into workshops in several waves.

The total recall cost is projected to approach $10 billion, and that figure doesn't include the extra damages that countries might seek via regulatory fines or possible class action lawsuits from drivers.