VW UK (and Audi, Skoda & SEAT) now say all CO2 and economy figures are ‘Provisional’

In the wake of the revelation that some 800,000 VW Group (VW, Audi, Skoda and SEAT) cars have wrongly stated emissions, VW makes them all ‘provisional’.

Last week, VW confessed it had made an ‘error’ in stating the CO2 emissions and economy of up to 800,000 cars from VW, Audi, Skoda and SEAT, and that they would need to set aside £1.4 billion to address the issue.

That seemed a paltry amount when you consider so many car owners in the UK and Europe – in particular company car drivers – are taxed based on the emissions of their cars, and with VW confirming it will pay any extra tax imposed when CO2 emission are revised, it looks like they’ll have to dig a bit deeper than the £1.4 billion.

But we are beginning to wonder if the 800,000 number is going to be the full extent of the problem, as VW (and the rest of its UK sites) are now quoting all emission and economy numbers as ‘provisional’ on their UK websites. How can that be legal?

Fleet News is reporting that buyers of VW cars (we assume fleet buyers) are also being asked to sign a letter confirming they understand the cars they are buying may be subject to revised economy and emissions figures, and that there may be a potential increase in the figures.

Cars affected (at least those admitted to so far) cover a wide range of VW, Audi, Skoda and SEAT models – mainly, it would seem, for 2015 – fitted with the 1.4, 1.6 and 2.0 litre TDI diesel engines as well as cars fitted with the 1.4 litre TSI petrol engine.