Volkswagen Group

German police swooped on Volkswagen's headquarters on Oct. 8, carrying away files and hard disks as the investigation into a massive pollution cheating scandal expanded on both sides of the Atlantic.

The head of Volkswagen's US division apologized to Congress and said the company takes "full responsibility" for an emissions cheating scandal, according to testimony released Oct. 7.

Volkswagen Chief Executive Matthias Mueller said in an interview with a German newspaper that the company would launch a recall for cars affected by its diesel emissions crisis in January and complete the fix by the end of next year.

Volkswagen's  supervisory board will hold an extraordinary meeting on Oct. 7 at which finance chief Hans Dieter Poetsch is expected to be appointed as new head of the 20-member controlling panel, two sources said on Oct. 4.

The Romanian authorities are waiting until October 7 to receive more data from the German Volkwagen group about its emissions problems before deciding how much more environmental tax the company should pay.

Romania says that Volkswagen or its legal representatives in Romania must pay more environmental tax than it has done.

The head of the European Parliament told a group of German regional newspapers that the emissions scandal at Volkswagen (VW) would hit the German economy hard but Europe?s biggest carmaker was likely to survive the crisis. 

Germany?s finance and economy ministers have played down the risk of a broader economic danger for Germany from the scandal. 

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Oct.4 said the emissions scandal that has hit car giant Volkswagen was "dramatic" but would not inflict lasting damage to Germany's reputation.

The Swiss Federal Roads Office on Oct. 2 issued a preliminary ban on registering new Volkswagen diesel vehicles that may be outfitted with software designed to cheat emissions tests, it said in a statement.

Volkswagen is looking at ways to cut costs and boost cash flow and could sell more shares if the price of clearing up a scandal over its rigging of diesel emissions tests puts its credit rating at risk. 

The owners of 5700 new cars of the Volkswagen and Audi brands in Bulgaria will have to have their cars refitted due to the presence of illegal emission-control software.

The scandal broke out on September 18, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Volkswagen had to refit nearly half a million cars equipped with illegal software to bypass diesel emissions tests.