Volkswagen Audi hit with fresh emissions cheating lawsuit in US

Washington: Embattled Volkswagen is facing a new lawsuit in US courts over devices used to cheat emissions standards, this one against luxury brand Audi, according to court documents.

The new case filed Tuesday in Illinois court, cites a media report Audi installed the cheating devices on gasoline-powered cars to hide the true emissions of climate-warming gas carbon dioxide, court papers say.

The latest suit follows last month's USD 14.7 billion class action settlement in Volkswagen's diesel emissions cheating scandal, which has rocked the company and exposed it to a sprawling set of legal claims and investigations.

Volkswagen last year admitted to equipping millions of diesel-powered cars sold around the world with so-called "defeat devices" that reduced nitrogen oxide during emissions testing but allowed it to rise to as much as 40 times permissible levels in normal driving conditions.

Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported Saturday that California regulators had found evidence of the latest alleged software manipulation scheme on certain 3.0-liter, gasoline-powered Audi models with automatic transmissions, which the newspaper said could detect testing and lower carbon dioxide emissions accordingly.

Law firm Hagens Berman, representing a man from Chicago, said in a statement consumers had been duped into buying cars they thought were "environmentally sound."

"Throughout the yearlong dieselgate scandal, Audi chose to continue to deceive consumers across the country with yet another emissions-cheating device installed in even more of its vehicles," Steve Berman, a partner in the firm, said in the statement.