Volkswagen Company’s top range automaker Audi said that about 2.1 million of its diesel cars are fitted with the experienced software enabling them to cheat emission tests. After this announcement, Audi share price has dropped 2.5 percent. The company is also said to have suspended the research and development heads of three divisions – VW core, Audi, and Porsche- Reuter’s reports, but a company spokesman could not confirm that.

Emission Cheating Software:

Overall reports said that 1.42 million Audi vehicles with so-called EU5 engines are affected in Western Europe and in which 577,000 in Germany and almost 13,000 in the US. Affected models include the A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3, and Q5, a spokesman told. Volkswagen sparked global outrage last week when it admitted that 11 million of its diesel cars are equipped with defeat devices.

This activates pollution controls during tests but covertly turn them off when the car is on the road. After the severe VW shares took last week in the wake of revelations, the stock continued to slide on Monday, shedding nearly seven percent. According to the media reports, Volkswagen ignored warnings from staff and a supplier year ago that the emission test rigging software was illegal. Thus, German prosecutors started a probe against VW’s former boss.

Former chief executive Martin Winterkorn will be investigated over “allegations of fraud in the sale of cars with manipulated emissions data,” German authorities said. The scandal was revealed after the US Environmental Protection Agency found that some diesel cars were fitted with devices that could detect when the engine was being tested and could change the car’s performance to improve results.

The German company apologized for breaching consumers’ trust, and on Friday announced that Matthias Mueller was replacing Martin Winterkorn as chief executive. The spiraling scandal has badly tarnished VW’s name, left it exposed to up to 18 billion dollars in US fines, and wiped a third off its stock market value in a week. Mr. Matthias promised a “relentless” investigation to uncover what went wrong.

There were widespread German media reports at the weekend that the government ignored warnings two years ago that VW was using the software that was denied on Monday by a government spokesman.