Investing.com - In April of 2015, Volkswagen (XETRA:VOWG) sent letters to California owners of diesel-powered Audis and Volkswagens informing them of an "emissions service action" affecting the vehicles.
Owners were told they would need to take their cars to a dealer for new software to ensure tailpipe emissions were "optimized and operating efficiently."
The company didn't explain that it was taking the action in hopes of satisfying government regulators, who were growing increasingly skeptical about the reason for discrepancies between laboratory emissions test results and real world pollution from Volkswagen's diesel cars.
The controversy came to public attention last week after Volkswagen acknowledged it had deliberately deceived officials about how much its diesel cars polluted.