Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal has widened after the Environmental Protection Agency said that software allowing six-cylinder Volkswagen diesel engines to cheat on pollution tests is on more models than originally thought.
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“During a meeting yesterday, VW and Audi officials told EPA that the issues EPA identified in the November 2nd NOV extend to all 3.0 liter diesel engines from model years 2009 through 2016”. If regulators conclude that the devices’ primary objective is to evade emissions tests, they’re considered a defeat device in violation of the law.
The California Air Resources Board and the EPA “will continue to investigate and will take all appropriate action”, the federal agency said in its statement.
Since their initial scandal regarding gas emissions, Volkswagen has been facing a lot of trouble regarding their diesel cars, and the company may even have to recall a number of their cars. There had been 482,000 cars in the USA alone, although that figure was in the millions worldwide.
CARB Chairman Mary Nichols told a German newspaper the agency expects that vehicles with the first generation of VW’s 2.0-liter diesel engine will require a hardware “retrofit” to bring their emissions into compliance.
VW says USA customers with rigged cars deserve compensation because they bought a vehicle specifically advertised as a “clean diesel”.
As Volkswagen struggles to polish its stained image after the emission scandal, new information emerged that shows similar devices installed on luxury cars like Porsches.
The admissions about the 3.0-liter engines come on top of the previous revelations that similar cheating software had been installed on VW’s smaller 2.0-liter TDI engines for the 2009 to 2015 model years. The EPA and CARB said that it would now review the proposal.
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Audi of America had previously issued a stop-sale order for the A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L and Q5 models from the 2013 to 2016 model years, company spokeswoman Jeri Ward said. The company also admitted finding irregularities in carbon dioxide emissions in 800,000 other vehicles, all outside the U.S. a few of those were powered by gasoline engines. Analysts believe that VW could face steeper fines and more intense scrutiny from U.S. regulators and lawmakers in the near term.
