US says more cars included in VW diesel cheating

BERLIN, Germany -- The latest developments in Volkswagen's emissions scandal. All times local to Berlin, Germany:

7:05 p.m.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that additional six-cylinder Volkswagen diesel engines have software that cheats on emissions tests.

Regulators on Nov. 2 accused VW of putting the software on about 10,000 Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles with 3-liter engines from the 2014 through 2016 model years. But Thursday, the German automaker told the EPA and the California Air Resources Board that the same software is on vehicles going back to the 2009 model year.

Volkswagen has denied that the software allows the cars to cheat on emissions tests. The two agencies plan to investigate.

VW made the disclosure on the day it was meeting with the agencies about how it plans to fix 482,000 four-cylinder diesel cars equipped with emissions-cheating software.

2:50 p.m.

Shares in Volkswagen are rising amid reports that the cost of fixing its scandal-tainted cars - at least in Germany, where there are 2.4 million of them - might be far lower than expected.

Volkswagen's preference share price was up 1.4 percent at 107.30 euros, making it the strongest riser in Germany's main stock index, which was 0.5 percent higher.

Investors seem to be focusing on a report by a German magazine that says, without identifying its sources, that fixing the diesel engines that were identified to have test-cheating software could be done with a cheap piece of hardware in Germany.

The company is due to present to U.S. authorities its plans on how to fix the affected cars. Earlier, it also said it would cut its investments next year.

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1:20 p.m.

Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller says the company's board has decided to reduce capital expenditures by 1 billion euros ($1.07 billion) in 2016 as it deals with the fallout of its emissions-rigging scandal.

Mueller said Friday after a meeting of the board at company headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, that the cuts would bring capital expenditure down to 12 billion euros next year.

Among other things, the company said it would postpone a new design center in Wolfsburg and the introduction of an all-electric Phaeton sedan.

He says "we're driving cautiously over the coming months, but we know where we want to go and we want to ensure that the Volkswagen company comes out of the current situation strengthened."

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10:10 a.m.

Volkswagen's board of directors is meeting at company headquarters in Wolfsburg to discuss the automaker's future financial strategy in the wake of revelations it rigged vehicles to cheat emissions tests.

The dpa news agency reported that the 20-member board began meeting Friday morning behind closed doors to talk about how to best balance savings and investment.

Volkswagen in September admitted it rigged emissions tests for four-cylinder diesel engines on 11 million cars worldwide, including almost 500,000 in the U.S.

It has already set aside 6.7 billion euros ($7.4 billion) to cover the costs of recalling those vehicles but experts say the total cost including fines could be much more.

VW also has until day's end to submit a draft plan to fix four-cylinder diesels to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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This story has been corrected to show that the first name of Volkswagen's CEO is Matthias, not Michael.