Third of VW manufactured cars with ‘defeat devices' remain unfixed
8 November 2017
Mary Creagh MP, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, has written to John Hayes MP, Minister of State at the Department for Transport, to express the Committee's concerns around the lack of progress of applying fixes to cars equipped with ‘defeat devices'.
- Letter from Mary Creagh to John Hayes, 2 November 2017
- Correspondence between Mary Creagh and John Hayes, 19 December 2016 and January 2017
- Environmental Audit Committee
Figures from the Department for Transport obtained by the Chair show the number of fixes to Volkswagen manufactured cars has fallen to 2% of the affected cars each month. The analysis also shows that rates of fixes to Skoda vehicles rose rapidly in July and August to roughly double that of other brands owned by Volkswagen – an anomaly questioned by the Chair in her letter.
Mary Creagh MP, said:
“It is over two years since the VW emissions scandal was discovered, a third of vehicles have yet to be fixed and rates have slowed considerably. We have written to the Department for Transport to ask what action they are taking in response to the stalled progress.
“It is essential that the vehicles on Britain's roads adhere to emissions regulations, particularly as the country is faced with dangerous levels of pollution. The Department must take responsibility for ensuring that these fixes are completed as soon as possible”.
In his letter of January 2017, Transport Minister John Hayes said DfT had regular update meetings with VW to ensure that good progress is being made in fixing the 1,207,152 vehicles affected by the emissions scandal.
Figures provided in response to Parliamentary Questions tabled by Mary Creagh MP show that as of September 2017 around two thirds of affected vehicles had been fixed, but that the rate of fixes had declined from a high of 10% of affected cars per month in February 2017 to 2% of affected cars per month. The graph below shows the progress made in applying fixes each month.
Graph: Percentage of cars with defeat devices to which fixes were applied over time. (NB – “VWPV means VW Personal Vehicles, VWCV means VW commercial vehicles).
Further information
Image: Parliamentary copyright