The action also leaves the possibility of a buyback for VW owners. The Air Resources Board lists a number of reasons why Volkswagen’s proposal was rejected, but it specified that among the most important reasons for the rejection was the fact that “the proposed plans do not sufficiently address impacts on the engine, the vehicle’s overall operation, and all related emissions control technologies, including the OBD [On Board Diagnostics] system”.
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The state said it will continue its investigation as well as talks with VW.
That finding will likely mean future fines for VW as the investigation continues.
“How many more people suffered asthma attacks?” The Environmental Protection Agency says it concurs. In November, Volkswagen acknowledged that the problems also exist in its three-liter diesel engines.
The cars covered include VW Jetta SportWagen (2009-2014); VW Beetle (2013-2015); VW Beetle Convertible (2013-2015); VW Golf (2010-2015); VW Jetta (2009-2015); VW Passat (2012-2015); VW Golf SportWagen (2015); and the VW-owned Audi A3 (2010-2013 and 2015).
On Tuesday, the California Air Resources Board rejected a separate plan by VW to meet even stricter air quality regulations in that state. In a statement, the EPA said that to-date, the Germany automaker “has not submitted an approvable recall plan to bring the vehicles into compliance and reduce pollution”.
Volkswagen hasn’t commented on the CARB’s announcement.
Nichols said in a press release that “Volkswagen made a decision to cheat on emissions tests and then tried to cover it up”.
The development is not necessarily a major setback for VW, said Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book.
“Volkswagen has been working on an additional potential fix involving the catalytic converter”.
“It sounds like they didn’t have enough specifics”, he said. It cheated emissions tests all over the world, and regulators besides the EPA and CARB are going to come after the automaker.
That and Mueller is slated to meet with EPA administrator Gina McCarthy in Washington D.C. on Wednesday to discuss a USA fix for VW’s emissions scandal.
California sent VW a confidential letter offering a detailed explanation of why its proposed solution, or fix, does not work. (The defeat device at the center of the issue rigs vehicles to perform differently on the road than they do in tests.) Volkswagen just misunderstood what the EPA was asking, Mueller said. The U.S. EPA served Volkswagen with a Notice of Violation at the time.
The rejection of VW’s plan did not result in any immediate penalties.
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The rejected plan was for 2.0 liter vehicles with software that allows them to emit 40 times the legal limit of pollutants.
