After admission of fitting about 11 million of its cars with software created to cheat emission tests since 2008, the Volkswagen Group has begun offering a “goodwill package” to unit owners caught in the middle of the scandal. But the chemical treatment, while saving acceleration and mileage, needs a clumsy storage tank and multiple hardware changes to work.
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Separately, Senators Ed Markey of MA and Richard Blumenthal of CT have released a letter calling on Volkswagen to buy back diesel vehicles that don’t meet pollution standards, noting that VW had signaled it could buy back cars sold in Europe that have inaccurate carbon dioxide emissions ratings.
Volkswagen’s use of emissions cheating devices on its larger 3.0 liter diesel engine cars extends back five years earlier than originally reported, USA regulators said Friday, deepening the crisis at the German auto giant.
The EPA had previously accused the company of installing the defeat-device software on almost 500,000 smaller cars with 2-liter engines as well as 10,000 3-liter models made from 2014 to 2016, but this news broadens the scandal even further. With this plan, we now know that – at least in the near term – major VW future-product plans aren’t at risk.
Dave Clegern, a spokesman for the California air board, said the agency will have 20 days to respond to Volkswagen’s fix plan. Emissions suffered. EPA found that a few vehicles failed its tests with emissions of oxides of nitrogen that were as high as 40 times over the limits.
Any fix would nearly certainly include a recall, with owners being asked to take their cars to dealers for repairs.
VW said explicitly that there will be no cuts to planned investments in China.
John German, senior fellow with the worldwide Council on Clean Transportation, the group that sponsored the on-road testing that exposed the cheating, said the older VWs were not created to handle urea treatment systems, making a solution a complex challenge for engineers. Scores of class-action lawsuits have been filed against the company since the scandal erupted in September. The company is cooperating with the agencies and wants to continue to have productive conversations with them, she said.
Beyond developing an effective fix for each of the three types of non-compliant 4-cylinder engines, VW must document any adverse impacts on vehicles and consumers.
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“In California, those who breathe the dirtiest air are disproportionately in low-income communities of color”, wrote Sara Chandler of the Greenlining Institute in a blog post.
