A German newspaper Bild am Sonntag this weekend countered that assertion, reporting that Volkswagen executives knew about the false claims a full year ago.
Two months after more than 11 million Volkswagen vehicles were found to be using the cheating software that deliberately underreported nitrous oxide emissions, the German car maker said that it had discovered that another 800,000 of its cars understated their carbon dioxide output and fuel efficiency.
The publication says that Martin Winterkorn, then Volkswagen’s CEO, knew about the discrepancy in reporting by spring of 2015 at the latest.
