The embattled automaker’s plan to fix 580,000 affected USA vehicles in its emissions scandal didn’t meet the standards of the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board.
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The proposal did not describe the emissions cheating issues in sufficient detail “for CARB to adequately understand them in the context of the recall plans”, the letter said.
Separately, VW is working on a plan to fix larger 3.0-liter diesel engines used in some VW, Audi, and Porsche vehicles. The carmaker “continued and compounded the lie, and when they were caught they tried to deny it”, Nichols added on Tuesday. Besides being forced to recall and somehow fix the cars to make them genuinely compliant with emissions rules, VW faces fines of up to $18 billion from USA regulators for installing the software on nearly 500,000 US cars.
Volkswagen’s Dieselgate fix has hit a brick wall in California, as the proposition was refused by the California Air Resources Board.
After his speech at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Mr. Meuller spoke with National Public Radio (NPR) and when asked if VW had lied about the cars, Meuller said, “we didn’t lie”.
California regulators on Tuesday rejected Volkswagen’s recall plan for some of the German automaker’s most popular diesel models that used software to intentionally deceive government emissions tests, including the Beetle, Jetta, Golf and Passat.
The agency’s response raised fears that Volkswagen will have to buy back all or a portion of the affected vehicles. Muller said the controversy over the so-called defeat devices began with a “misunderstanding” of federal laws. “We agreed with the CARB that (VW’s) action plan fell short in a lot of different areas”, Grundler said.
“We appreciated the conversation with Volkswagen”, McCarthy said, “We will continue to work toward a solution”. “If they are already close to a workable solution we might get a finalized, approved plan tomorrow”.
The regulator has also issued a formal notice of violation against Volkswagen.
Also bad is the fact that CARB doesn’t seem entirely convinced by the fix Volkswagen has proposed (likely, catalytic converters). This past December, VW was given the green-light to begin making 8.5 million faulty diesel vehicles comply with emissions regulations in Europe – a massive job that the company is aiming to complete by the end of this year.
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CARB’s decision only applies to the fix offered for 2-litre engines, noting that the auto-maker has until February 2 to present its mitigation plan for 3-litre engines.
