VW began selling cars in UK with cheat software in 2008

LONDON (Reuters) -- Volkswagen first sold cars in Britain equipped with software that could cheat emissions tests in 2008, its UK boss, Paul Willis, said, but he shed little light on the root cause of the scandal.

VW has admitted rigging diesel emissions tests in the U.S. and Germany's transport minister says it also manipulated them in Europe.

Willis said VW first began selling cars in the UK equipped with so-called defeat devices around seven years ago, but he only became aware of such software last month.

"I knew nothing about this subject until 19 September this year, when I first heard it on the news from the United States," Willis told a committee of British lawmakers on Monday.

He said he thought it was implausible that senior VW executives knew about the test-rigging.

VW's U.S. chief executive, Michael Horn, told American lawmakers last week that the rigging of tests was not a company decision but the result of actions by a small number of engineers.

In the UK, about 1.2 million VW Group vehicles have been affected by the cheat software.

Wlllis apologized to customers and said the brand needed to rebuild trust, but when asked technical details about the software and engines, he said: "I'm not an engineer."

"My role in the United Kingdom is in sales, marketing, distribution and finance," he said. "The department that looks after the engines, the technical development of Volkswagen, I have no direct relationship with that," Willis said. "We mishandled the situation. That's why we need to fix the cars, we need to get the customers in, and put it right."

Of 1.2 million autos in the U.K. affected by the emissions rigging, about 700,000 2.0 liter-engines will require a software upgrade, while another 400,000 1.6-liter models will each need an injector replacement as well, Willis said.

Recalls are likely to start in the first quarter of 2016 after VW and the German government agree on a repair program by the end of this year, with the 2.0-liter engines brought in for fixing first.

The goal in the U.K. is to correct all vehicles involved before the end of next year, Willis said. U.K. sales, "as expected," have "dropped a little" since news of emission-test rigging broke in September, he said.

UK transport minister Patrick McLoughlin told the committee that he did not believe other companies making cars in Britain were rigging emissions tests, but that he had yet to receive responses from some carmakers to letters he had sent on the issue.

"So far as the responses we've received from the manufacturers involved in manufacturing cars in this country, I am satisfied [that they are not cheating emissions tests] but there are still some companies which have not yet responded to the letters we've sent," he said.

Nissan, BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Honda and Toyota are among the automakers that build cars in Britain.

Bloomberg contributed to this report