January 12, 2016

Attorney General George Jepsen, one of the state attorneys general leading a multistate investigation into the emissions cheating scandal involving German automaker Volkswagen, today issued the following statement in response to comments made by Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller to a National Public Radio reporter at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit:

"Mr. Müller's comments are disturbing, especially in light of the company's continued lack of cooperation with our investigation, and they underscore the importance of our inquiry as well as the investigations launched by other regulators on both the state and federal levels.

"Volkswagen has failed consumers on multiple levels and should be taking steps – as it initially promised to do – to correct a culture that allowed such wide-scale deception to occur. In an apparent moment of candor in Detroit, we now learn that the company's newly appointed and most senior leader doesn't believe Volkswagen lied, which is undisputable, and cannot say when it plans to deliver its solution to a problem that is affecting millions of Americans, which is unacceptable.

"The time for empty apologies and hollow pledges of cooperation is over. It's up to Volkswagen to live up to its promises and obligations to consumers – and that starts by being honest with the American public, providing regulators with requested documents and coming clean on how they intend to address the very real problems with their vehicles."

###