This was disclosed by the company’s new Chief Executive Herbert Diess, who maintained that the company’s top priority now is to uncover what happened and ensure it never happens again.
He also said that VW will delay the launch of a diesel vehicle in Japan.
Speaking at the Tokyo Motor Show on Wednesday night, Diess said: “On behalf of my entire company, I’d like to apologise.
Advertisement
“Our customers’ confidence and trust is what is most important to us and we are doing everything what we can to win back this trust in our brand and in our great products.
“That means we will come up with good technical solutions for the affected diesel engines. We will uncover and disclose the full truth of what happened and we will make sure that something like this never happens again.”
He also promised to create a new and even better Volkswagen.
VW is engulfed in the worst crisis of its history, after US authorities found out that its diesel vehicles had software installed that allow them cheat emissions tests.