VW executive: Any fix for car owners could take year or more

WASHINGTON (AP)

Volkswagen’s top U.S. executive apologized Thursday as the emissions-rigging scandal engulfing the world’s largest automaker deepened and members of Congress said the company violated the public’s trust.

Lawmakers were skeptical of the explanation from Volkswagen of America Chief Executive Michael Horn, who testified that three unidentified employees had been suspended since the EPA announced Sept. 18 that VW rigged its diesel cars to bypass U.S. emissions standards for clean air. The German automaker admitted that it installed on-board computer software designed to cheat on government tests in nearly 500,000 of its four-cylinder “clean diesel” cars starting with the 2009 model year.

Horn said the company does not yet have an approved recall plan for cars that have the defeat device, and that any fix for customers could take “one or two years” to carry out. Each of the nearly half million cars will require five hours to 10 hours of work, a potentially significant burden on dealers.