EPA Puts US Carmakers on Notice for Potential Emissions Rigging

The United States environmental regulator says that it will test all diesel auto models for pollution “defeat devices” in the wake of the scandal over Volkswagen’s vehicles.

Volkswagen apparently isn’t the only automaker that’s experiencing issues with exceeding emission limits, as a new report from German magazine Auto Bild claims that some of BMW’s diesel cars are exceeding Europe’s air pollution limits.

Volkswagen was recently found to have cheated on gas emissions tests for its diesel cars, installing software designed to register lower emissions than in reality. It is more hard to road-test emissions, although some states do random stops on highways to check.

In the past the EPA has been mostly focused on emissions from heavy-duty vehicles but it is improving testing of light-duty cars, agency officials said.

The concern was that BMW might also have resorted to some sort of software trickery to pass emissions tests.

“We stand by our responsibility”, he said. The company said it is willing to discuss its testing procedures with relevant authorities as well as make its vehicles available for testing at any time. “It was impossible for them to explain why the vehicle was running more clean when it was cold”.

Thus, the EPA intends to test new cars by actually driving them – or at least putting them in a setting which emulates normal driving. This was only being done in large trucks since they account for far more air pollution than small ones, but now it is going to be implemented for all vehicles in the US.

Volkswagen CEO Winterkorn said he was unaware of the wrongdoing but took responsibility for the scandal by stepping down.

Around 180,000 diesel models manufactured by the company which fall under the Euro 5 category could be affected by the ban, although it will only apply to cars not yet sold or registered.

VW has for years marketed its “clean diesel” technology as a breakthrough.

VW’s shares plummeted around 30% in the days after the scandal broke, and chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned on Wednesday. These included the Audi A3, VW Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat models built with Type EA 189 diesel engines in the last seven years.

The company also said it was suspending some employees and would reorganize its North America operations after admitting it used trick engine software to cheat on USA diesel emissions tests.