Germany gives Volkswagen Oct 7 deadline

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BERLIN: Volkswagen AG gets Oct 7 deadline for fixing manipulated cars in Germany.

The German motor authority has directed Volkswagen AG to come up with a plan for fixing the cars until Oct 7.

‘The Federal Motor Transport Authority has asked Volkswagen to provide a binding plan for measures and a schedule which makes clear, when a technical solution for the affected vehicles can be put into practice,’ said Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Sunday. The authority has set Oct 7 as deadline for the plan, a spokesman for the ministry said, confirming a report in newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

The authority was responding to Volkswagen’s use of software that helped some of its diesel-powered vehicles to get favorable test results. Volkswagen installed in some 11 million vehicles engine-management software that made bench-test emissions appear lower than they were on the road. The German car maker replaced its chief executive this week after the manipulation was discovered.

Volkswagen’s new chief executive, Matthias Müller, and works council head Bernd Osterloh have warned employees in a joint letter of challenges and vowed to improve compliance, Handelsblatt reported.

“Our company faces unprecedented challenges,” they write in the first sentence of the letter, according to the newspaper.