大众汽车就尾气造假门道歉

The chief executive of Volkswagen has apologised and ordered an external investigation into findings that the carmaker cheated on US emissions tests to make its vehicles appear less polluting.

有调查结果称，大众汽车(Volkswagen)在美国汽车尾气排放检测中造假，以使该品牌汽车看上去没有排放那么多的污染物。大众首席执行官文德恩(Martin Winterkorn)已就此道歉并下令展开外部调查。

In a statement on Sunday, Martin Winterkorn, chief executive of the German carmaker, said the board of management took the findings “very seriously”.

在上周日的一份声明中，文德恩表示，大众管理委员会对待这些调查结果的态度“非常严肃”。

He added: “I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public. We will co-operate fully with the responsible agencies, with transparency and urgency, to clearly, openly, and completely establish all of the facts of this case.”

他补充称：“我们辜负了顾客和公众的信任，我个人对此深表遗憾。我们将以透明和紧迫的方式与负责机构通力合作，以明确、公开和彻底地查明事实真相。”

The company also confirmed on Sunday evening that it had suspended from sale cars with its popular 4-cylinder “clean diesel” engine. VW said it had halted sales of new, two-litre TDI vehicles, as well as any certified pre-owned versions of the affected models at dealerships, going back to 2009.

大众上周日晚间还证实，它已暂停销售搭载颇受欢迎的四缸“清洁柴油”发动机的车辆。该公司表示，已暂停销售搭载2.0升涡轮增压柴油直喷(TDI)发动机的新车、以及经销商手里一切受影响车型的经过认证的二手车——这些车型可追溯到2009年。

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday said diesel variants of several VW and Audi models sold in the US over six years — including the VW Passat, Beetle and Audi A3 — had been fitted with sophisticated algorithms designed to deceive the laboratory testing regime.

美国国家环境保护局(Environmental Protection Agency)上周五表示，过去6年，在美销售的几款柴油版大众及奥迪(Audi)车型安装了复杂的算法，以骗过实验室检测系统。

The authorities ordered VW to recall 482,000 cars because of the use of so-called defeat devices — which use software to detect when the car is being tested and runs treatments to reduce nitrogen oxides. Once out on the road, the cars were discovered to produce pollutants up to 40 times the legal limits.

美国当局命令大众召回48.2万辆安装了所谓欺骗装置的汽车，这些装置使用软件来识别汽车是否在接受检测，并在接受检测时启动保护系统减少氮氧化物排放。一旦上路，这些汽车排放的污染物最高可达法定上限的40倍。

The discovery leaves the German carmaker — which has admitted to using the defeat devices — potentially facing billions of dollars in fines and warranty costs, possible criminal charges for executives and class-action lawsuits from US drivers.

这些调查结果可能会让大众（它已承认使用了上述欺骗装置）面临几十亿美元罚款和保修费用，其高管可能遭遇刑事诉讼，而该公司可能面临美国车主的集体诉讼。