The suspect part had been sourced by a supplier in the VW supply chain and not by VW directly, it was claimed.
It came as Volkswagen was hit by additional claims from German media that it had benefitted from human rights abuses in China’s troubled Xinjiang region.
It was a self report, most likely to avoid harsher consequences. Just like the diesel emissions scandal it is something that would not be persecuted in Germany the same way because the car industry owns the German government.