German state governor says Volkswagen should have admitted diesel deception much earlier
by The Associated Press
Board member says VW acknowledged the deception more than a year after researchers had demonstrated high real-world emissions in a study
BERLIN—The governor of Germany’s Lower Saxony state, which holds a minority stake in Volkswagen, says the automaker should have admitted earlier that it manipulated emissions data in diesel vehicles.
VW acknowledged the deception to U.S. regulators on Sept. 3, more than a year after researchers published a study showing the real-world emissions of two VW models were far higher than allowed.
Governor Stephan Weil told Lower Saxony’s state legislature on Tuesday that “this confession should clearly have come a great deal earlier – another serious mistake,” news agency dpa reported.
Lower Saxony holds a 20 per cent stake and and Weil sits on Volkswagen’s board of directors. He has said that the state’s representatives were “completely surprised” by the emissions scandal and vowed to work to protect jobs.
