Volkswagen Group of America CEO Michael Horn was more direct, saying, "We've totally screwed up."Horn added, "Our company was dishonest with the EPA, and the California Air Resources Board and with all of you."Olaf Lies, a Volkswagen board member and economy minister of Lower Saxony, later told the BBC that the people "who allowed this to happen, or who made the decision to install this software" acted criminally, and must be held personally accountable. He also said the board only found out about the problems "shortly before the media did", and expressed concerns over "why the board wasn't informed earlier about the problems when they were known about over a year ago in the United States".
Volkswagen announced that 11 million cars were involved in the falsified emission reports, and that over seven billion dollars would be earmarked to deal with the costs of rectifying the software at the heart of the pollution statements. The newly appointed CEO of VW Mathias Müller stated that the software was only activated in a part of those 11 million cars, which has yet to be determined. The German tabloid Bild claimed that top management had been aware of the software's use to manipulate exhaust settings as early as 2007. Bosch provided the software for testing purposes and warned VW that it would be illegal to use the software to avoid emissions compliance during normal driving. On 28 September 2015, it was reported that VW had suspended Heinz-Jakob Neusser, head of brand development at its core VW brand; Ulrich Hackenberg, the head of research and development at its brand Audi who oversees technical development across the VW group; and Wolfgang Hatz, research and development chief at its sports-car brand Porsche who also heads engine and transmissions development of the VW group.
For the European market, VW has stated unequivocally that EA288-engined cars (which conform to Euro 6 standards) are not affected, even though MY2015 TDIs in the US (which all use the EA288) are part of the EPA allegation and VW's admission. VW announcements to the German press make no mention of any EA288-equipped cars being part of the scandal in any country.
On 29 September 2015, Volkswagen announced plans to refit up to 11 million vehicles affected by the emissions violations scandal. The recall will affect models fitted with Volkswagen's EA 189 diesel engines, including 5 million at VW brand, 2.1 million at Audi, 1.2 million at Škoda and 1.8 million light commercial vehicles. SEAT said that 700,000 of its diesel models were affected. In Europe, a total of 8 million vehicles are affected.