EIB examining if VW loans used to rig emissions

5 October 2015, Politico

The European Investment Bank said Monday it is working to find out if any of its loans to Volkswagen to boost research into cleaner engines and other green technology were instead used to rig cars to cheat on emissions tests.

“We are looking into our exposure, we are looking into seeing where the individual loans have been used,” said Jonathan Taylor, the bank’s vice-president.

As POLITICO first reported last week, the Volkswagen Group has received over €4 billion in loans from the European Union’s largest lender over the last 10 years, a large part of it aimed at developing less polluting engines.

Over €1.1 billion went to truck and bus maker Scania between 2008 and 2013 to support research and development into a “new range of low emission engines,” as well “clean engine and hybrid technologies.”

Five of the projects fell under the EIB’s “climate action” category, said CEE Bankwatch, an NGO.

The value of EIB’s outstanding loans to Volkswagen totals €1.8 billion, Taylor said.

The bank is following the various investigations launched by European countries in the wake of the carmaker’s admission that it equipped 11 million of its diesel cars with “defeat devices” aimed at cheating on emissions tests.

“We are going to take a judgment on the back of [those results],” Taylor said.