California regulators Tuesday rejected Volkswagen’s proposal for recalling tens of thousands of defective diesel vehicles that were equipped with software aimed at cheating on federal and state’s air-pollution standards.
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The California Air Resources Board and Environmental Protection Agencyrejected the German automaker’s proposed solution for emissions excesses in its 2.0-liter engines Tuesday, saying the submitted recall plan contains gaps and lacks sufficient detail. And, finally, VW’s proposal doesn’t address the “overall impacts on vehicles performance, emissions and safety” adequately enough.
Volkswagen boss Matthias Müller is due to meet with Gina McCarthy, the head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), later today.
“[We] had a … not the right interpretation of the American law”, said Mueller, who added that they “didn’t understand the question at first” when the investigators asked about defeat devices in the cars.
The rejection of Volkswagen’s recall plan is a setback, though may not preclude a final deal.
Volkswagen had an easier time of getting its recall plan implemented in Europe, where the diesel cars with defeat devices will be given a software update that the company says will take “under half an hour”.
Besides rejecting the proposed fix, CARB slapped Volkswagen with 13 different violations of California regulations.
CARB also stated that it will continue to hold talks with the German automaker in order to find suitable solutions.
“We are committed to working cooperatively with CARB and other regulators”. The consequences of Volkswagens actions are significant and these issues must be addressed expeditiously says CARB.
Besides working to fix the Dieselgate cars, sold between 2009 and 2013, the Volkswagen Group is also working towards a February 2 deadline to deliver its plan to fix around 80,00 V6 TDI motors, which spread the emissions-cheating contagion to Porsche, as well as Audi and Volkswagen. This rejection only applies to 2.0-litre diesels, not the 3.0-litre ones.
The EPA told the company that it “agrees with CARB that Volkswagen has not submitted an approvable recall plan to bring the vehicles into compliance and reduce pollution”. According to Mueller, VW “didn’t lie” to regulators when the first reports of serious irregularities between claimed emissions and actual real-world levels came to light. The company reportedly will buy back 115,000 vehicles in the country.
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In the same statement from KBB, the company’s senior analyst Karl Brauer speculates that the industry may hear as soon as tomorrow whether or not the next iteration of VW’s plan submissions has been accepted by CARB.
