[6] Bmw Volkswagen Making Daily Headline

BERLIN— Volkswagen AG told the German government that some of its European-sold diesel-powered cars are affected by the same software that helped some of its vehicles evade emissions-testing standards in the U.S.

Volkswagen said earlier this week that the software was installed on as many as 11 million cars world-wide, and it had been expected that cars sold in its home market in Western Europe also would contain the software. But Thursday’s disclosure underscores the logistical challenges faced by Volkswagen, as well as governments, regulators, dealers and car buyers on both sides of the Atlantic, in sorting out which cars are affected and what can be done about it.

“We have been informed that there are also 1.6- and 2-liter diesel cars that are affected in Europe,” Germany’s Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in Berlin. “We will continue to work intensively with Volkswagen to find out which vehicles are affected,” he said.

Mr. Dobrindt said the ministry didn’t yet have specific numbers for Europe, but that should be clarified in the “coming days” as the ministry continues to work closely with Volkswagen. Mr. Dobrindt said the government would wait until it had defined the scope of the problem before deciding on possible consequences for those cars where manipulation was detected.

Underscoring the new jitters across the auto industry, investors sold shares of BMW AG Thursday after a report by a local auto magazine that a road test of one of its diesel-powered sport-utility vehicles showed higher emissions than in laboratory testing. BMW said it wasn’t familiar with the specific test but that many of its diesel models had tested satisfactorily both on the road and in the lab.