VW halts European van deliveries amid diesel emissions 'uncertainties'

VW said it had reported the findings to the KBA, Germany's automotive watchdog agency.

Earlier on Friday, German magazine Der Spiegel, without identifying the source of its information, reported that VW tests had shown that the T6's toxic nitrogen oxide emissions in part significantly exceeded legal limits, and that VW had set an emissions-related so-called "adjustment factor" too low when seeking KBA approval for the model.

"VW Commercial Vehicles is looking into signs that certain technical data ... cannot be fully confirmed" by reviews of the T6 model's actual and planned emission levels, a spokesman for VW's van division said.

The spokesman ruled out the possibility that the engine management software was the cause of the "uncertainties," and said VW had agreed with the KBA to run further tests.

More than two years ago, VW admitted to U.S. authorities that it had used a "defeat device" or software in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested and change the performance accordingly to improve emissions results. Just this week in Detroit, a VW executive was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the scandal.

The VW commercial division's Amarok pickup truck and box-type Caddy model were implicated in the carmaker's "dieselgate" scandal as they also carried the engine at the center of the manipulations, codenamed EA 189.

The van division spokesman did not comment on engine types, the number of vehicles affected or when the models in question were built. The KBA had no immediate comment.

The Multivan is not available in the U.S.

Reporting by Jan Schwartz and Andreas Cremer