For the gearheads at West Virginia University, it was a minor commission. An environmental group, the International Council on Clean Transportation, had asked the school’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions to test the tailpipes of diesel cars in the U.S., such as those sold by Volkswagen and BMW. Studies suggested that automakers’ diesel cars polluted more on the road than in the lab, and curiously, more in Europe than in the U.S. ICCT wanted to figure out what the automakers had done to meet America’s tougher emissions standards and how to repatriate these improvements for European car buyers....

Emissions scandal was centred on the EA 189 engine, but the EA 288 may also have the cheat device

A second Volkswagen diesel engine sold in Canada may have been fitted with software to cheat on emissions tests, the company revealed on Thursday.

VW had previously admitted that the software was installed on cars with the EA 189 diesel engine built to the "Euro 5" emissions standard.

The company is now checking whether older models with the EA 288 diesel motor built to the same emissions standard may also have the software, a spokesman said. The 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine was introduced in 2012.

A Volkswagen Canada spokesman said cars with this engine are being tested by regulators here for the "cheat device," which switches on emissions controls for nitrogen oxide in testing conditions but switches them off during real-world driving.

The vehicles equipped with this engine have been under a stop-sale notice in Canada since Sept. 21 and will remain so until a resolution is found, the VW Canada spokesman said.

There is as yet no timetable for a recall, he added.

U.S. cars affected, but not EU vehicles

They were included in the original count of affected Volkswagen products issued by Environment Canada, which amounted to more than 100,000 cars.

Volkswagen says as many as 70,000 U.S. vehicles may have the EA 288 engine, but it believes vehicles sold in Europe do not have the software.

Until now, the scandal has been centred on the EA 189 diesel engine, a four-cylinder engine introduced in 2009 which is known to have the software.

The Euro 5 emissions standards, implemented in 2009, set emissions levels for European cars and light trucks. The Volkswagen emissions scandal has revealed the degree to which North American regulators relied on the EU to test diesel engines.

Diesel engines generally have lower carbon emissions than gasoline engines, but higher emissions of particulates and nitrogen oxide, which can cause smog and contribute to asthma and respiratory problems.

Volkswagen has warned that the figure of 11 million cars that cheated in air-pollution tests may be larger than first thought.

The automaker is under fire for using diesel engines that deliberately lowered their output of nitrogen oxides during lab testing to pass strict emissions standards. In real-world use, the cars pumped limit-busting amounts of harmful gasses into the atmosphere.

In a statement on Thursday, the German car manufacturer confirmed that two versions of its diesel engines, the EA 288 EU5 and EU6 models, were free of so-called "defeat devices" designed to fool emissions testers.

Crucially, it is now looking at earlier builds of the engine to see if they also use the dodgy standards-evading software, potentially adding to the 11-million figure.

"I think it is a big problem," Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, head of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, told Reuters, saying millions more cars could be defective. "It suggests it doesn't know its product, which is a tragedy."

EA 288 engines are used in the Volkswagen Golf, Volkswagen Beetle, Beetle Convertible, Passat, and Jetta. A representative of Volkswagen America said that none of the firm's cars in the US were covered by the statement.

Volkswagen has warned that recalling and fixing all the cars carrying defeat devices could reach $7bn, but that's just the cost of correcting the vehicle's engine and control software. There are also legal costs to factor in.

The National Law Journal has been keeping an eye on the situation and now estimates that over 300 separate lawsuits are pending against Volkswagen in the US over the incident. Americans are notoriously litigious, however there are fewer than half a million Volkswagens in the US affected by defeat devices. But VW has legal problems in other parts of the world.

There are also government penalties to consider. American car companies are lobbying for the feds to issue a very large fine against Volkswagen, and the EU and Australian governments have also warned of bills to come. ®

My point is that in today's 30 sec news cycle, folks lose interest and basic economics usually win out. Sure, VW will have a big hit to their finances and every time there's some news about this issue it will make headlines.

But VW will keep making TDI equipped cars and people will keep buying them. That's not apologist, just reality.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Car owners and computer security researchers can modify automobile software without incurring some U.S. copyright liability, according to new guidelines issued this month that had been opposed by the auto industry.

The Library of Congress, which oversees the U.S. Copyright Office, agreed with fair use advocates who argued that vehicle owners are entitled to modify their cars, which often involves altering software.

Automakers including General Motors, and other companies such as John Deere, opposed the rules. They said vehicle owners could visit authorized repair shops for changes they may need to undertake.

However, U.S. copyright officials decided that altering computer programs for vehicle repair or modification may not infringe a manufacturer's software copyright.

Representatives for GM and John Deere could not immediately be reached for comment.

Security researchers also pushed for copyright liability protection because computer programs are "pervasive" in modern machines and devices, including vehicles, home appliances and medical devices.

"We are pleased that analysts will now be able to examine the software in the cars we drive without facing legal threats from car manufacturers," said Kit Wilson, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocated for the rule changes.

The new rules must be renewed in three years, Wilson said.

Volkswagen could be prosecuted on a corporate manslaughter charge over rigged diesel emission tests, ministers have said, as the Government faced questions from MPs over the number of deaths that could be attributed to the scandal.

Transport minister Robert Goodwill told the Environmental Audit Committee that a corporate manslaughter charge may be considered if legal advice suggests it could be successful.

Mr Goodwill said there were “a number of areas” where prosecution could be brought. Asked whether corporate manslaughter was an option he said: “That’s probably something that’s above my pay grade to decide – whether a prosecution of that type might be successful. But certainly if it could be proven that a case like that could be brought then certainly that could be open.”

It would be for law enforcement authorities, rather than the Government, to bring forward a corporate manslaughter case against the company.

Thousands of people die every year as a result of nitrogen oxide (NOx) air pollution, with diesel vehicles the main cause.

Volkswagen has admitted to adding “defeat devices” to millions of its vehicles to enable them to produce dramatically less NOx pollution in lab tests than they do on the road. However, it is not yet clear how many deaths could be linked to increased emissions as a result of the scandal.

In the UK, 1.2 million affected cars will be recalled, starting in early 2016. A spokesperson for Volkswagen said that the procedure for removing the defeat devices was still being developed by experts in Germany and it is still unclear whether the adjustments will actually reduce NOx emissions.

Experts at Kings College London estimate around 5,800 premature deaths in the UK can be linked to diesel emissions from vehicles.

Other avenues for legal action against Volkswagen could include a prosecution based on misleading testing authorities, or an investigation through the Competitions and Markets Authority, Mr Goodwill said.

Ministers also faced questions over how much they knew about discrepancies in testing before Volkswagen’s deception came to light last month.

Research carried out six years ago by the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) suggested that pollution levels in real world engine tests were consistently higher than those recorded in lab settings. A further report in 2011 identified an “inadequate testing regime”.

But appearing before the committee, DEFRA minster Rory Stewart said that discrepancies between the two types of test had been public knowledge for several years. Ministers had, however, not been aware before the VW scandal of any manufacturer actively “cheating” the test, he said.

“In other words what we thought the problem was, was that the test was no good,” he said, adding that minsters had pushed for an emphasis on real world testing at the European Union’s Environment Council.

“We’d set up a test where we’d revealed the rules so clearly to the manufacturers that they were designing cars which were exactly designed to mimic those tests and perform against those test. It would be like producing for a student preparing for an exam all of the details of how that exam was going to be conducted,” he said.

Mr Stewart said that the Government’s goal was to halve the number of deaths attributable to air pollution by 2030, and that this target would be aided by Europe strengthening the testing regime for vehicle engines.

Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, questioned how hard ministers had been lobbying for tougher tests. In the last parliament, she said, ministers held 116 meetings with representatives from car manufacturers and only two with clean air campaigners.

“If it was known [that tests were inadequate]…and there was all of this pushing and in the meantime people are dying, it doesn’t seem the pushing has been commensurate to the challenge that is out there,” she said.

A spokesperson for Volkswagen said the company could not comment on potential legal proceedings

“We’d set up a test where we’d revealed the rules so clearly to the manufacturers that they were designing cars which were exactly designed to mimic those tests and perform against those test. It would be like producing for a student preparing for an exam all of the details of how that exam was going to be conducted,” he said.

Volkswagen shares rise despite billions of losses

Volkswagen's share price rallied on Wednesday despite an operating loss of 3.48 billion euros ($3.84 billion) in the third quarter, as a scandal over falsifying its diesel emissions knocked the company.

The carmaker was forced to take its first quarterly loss in 15 years, slightly deeper than analysts' forecasts, as it anticipated hefty payouts to consumers around the world over the deceptive data on its diesel emissions and the potential recall of 11 million cars. This set of results factored in a 6.7 billion euros writedown related to the scandal, lower than some had feared. After a couple of hours of trade, the stock was up close to 4 percent.

Sales revenues in the first nine months of the year were up 8.5 percent, and the carmaker reaffirmed its full-year new car deliveries of around 10.14 million. One positive step for investors could be the carmakers' discussions with European Union member states' authorities to limit legal action beyond what has already been agreed with Germany's KBA (Federal Motor Transport Authority).

Since the scandal emerged, Volkswagen has appointed a new chief executive, Matthias Mueller, and promised to step up cost-cutting efforts.

Mueller said in a statement: "The figures show the core strength of the Volkswagen Group on the one hand, while on the other the initial impact of the current situation is becoming clear. We will do everything in our power to win back the trust we have lost."

Winning back that trust in both its cars and its share price could be difficult.

"Volkswagen is facing a big black hole that it's going to have to throw money at for the foreseeable future, and at the moment it has no idea how deep that hole is," Laith Khalaf, senior analyst, HargreavesLansdown, wrote in a research note.