Photo: AP/Nick Ut

We knew Volkswagen’s Dieselgate fix wasn’t going to be easy, and we’ve been concerned that the repair might affect fuel economy. Well, it appears that our fears might have been justified, as Automotive News Europe says the proposed software fix for 2.0-liter diesel Passats is causing an increase high fuel consumption. Oh boy.


The automaker, which installed defeat devices into its diesel cars to hide NOx pollution from authorities, has reportedly had to delay a Passat recall in Europe due to concerns over fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.


Earlier this year, Volkswagen started to roll out fixes for affected cars in Europe. And boy are there lots of them. About 8.5 million Volkswagens, Audis, Seats and Skodas are smog-ing up the air in Europe, and VW is only on stage two of their recall.

The first stage applied software updates to the VW Amorok pickup. The second stage, according to the German media, aims to fix over 160,000 VW Passat models. But unfortunately, VW appears to have hit a roadblock.

Automotive News Europe cites the German media, saying that VW’s proposed software fix is hurting fuel economy: “Volkswagen Group’s diesel recall is being delayed in Germany because the automaker’s fix for rigged engines results in higher fuel consumption.”

But this increase in fuel consumption seems to be unconfirmed, as whe the publication reached out to VW, the automaker said that “...reports that [the delay] is due to a rise in fuel consumption following changes to the Passat’s engine software [are] ‘speculation.’”


The VW source did admit that authorities are running tests to see if the fix affects CO2 emissions and fuel economy. The source went on to say: “We have to guarantee that noise and especially CO2 emissions are exactly the same as before the fix.”

So it appears that VW is having trouble with the fix, and that their recall is being delayed so that fuel economy, CO2 emissions and noise levels can be further analyzed.




But we’ll have to wait a week or two to see whether the German media’s claim that the repairs are lowering fuel economy is actually true. That’s when the German Federal Motor Transport Authority expects to be finished with testing.