VW emissions scandal: Volkswagen urged to name cars affected

Volkswagen is said to have kept UK customers ‘in the dark (AFP/Getty)

Lawyers have urged Volkswagen to “come clean” over which cars in Britain have been affected by the emissions testing scandal.

Law firm Leigh Day, which says it is representing hundreds of VW drivers in the UK, claimed consumers were “being kept in the dark” by the German carmaker over which diesel cars are implicated.

VW admitted to rigging 11 million vehicles in the US with software that helped it to pass emissions tests. It is facing an $18bn (£11.9bn) fine from US regulators, as well as lawsuits from customers and also investors, who saw 30 per cent of the value of their shares disappear last week.

Bozena Michalowska-Howells at Leigh Day criticised VW, whose statement on Friday she said “gave scant regard” to its millions of customers, adding that it focused solely on the new chief executive, Matthias Müller.

She said: “Our clients still do not know definitively whether cars in the UK are affected, and if so which models. They do not know whether the car they are driving is indeed emitting 40 times the legal emissions limit, as has been suggested, nor do they know whether their cars will be recalled to bring them into the line with EU regulations.”

She added: “There is a woeful lack of clarity. Volkswagen must now come clean over which models were affected. Regulators must also make urgent measures to ensure that deception on this scale could never happen again.” She urged the UK Government to “take action to prevent further damage to air quality”.

Panmure Gordon’s veteran commentator David Buik described the appointment of Mr Müller, formerly head of Porsche, which is owned by VW, as “corporate insanity”. “The public is not being treated to the respect it deserves with an appointment that cannot be perceived as fully transparent,” he said.

There is a woeful lack of clarity. VW must now come clean over which models are affected