Volkswagen, EPA Fail To Break Impasse In Diesel Emissions Scandal
The state said VW’s proposed fix was “incomplete, substantially deficient and falls far short of meeting the legal requirements”.
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”. CARB also notified VW of violations of California air quality regulations associated with the company’s use of a “defeat device” in those cars.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants Volkswagen AG to come up with a solution to its emissions-rigging scandal that has zero negative impact on the vehicles’ owners, an agency director said Wednesday, a day after it rejected the automaker’s recall plans. “EPA has conveyed this to the company previously”. If they present them with another plan and that’s rejected, we can start to see some real concern.
In addition, CARB felt Volkswagen did not describe the proposed modifications in enough detail for regulators to determine their potential effectiveness, or indeed their technical feasibility. They must now continue discussions with the state agency.
Müller is scheduled to meet with EPA chief McCarthy on Wednesday to discuss the future of VW’s recall efforts.
In a statement of its own, Volkswagen insisted the rejection did not cover its latest engineering and software proposals, but rather a set of proposals it delivered to CARB in December.
“Mr. Mueller recognizes that his choice of words in trying to respond – in English – to questions about the conduct of VW with respect to the emissions issues may have resulted in some confusion”, VW said in a written statement.
“We are committed to working cooperatively with CARB and other regulators”.
CARB’s decision (PDF) only applies to 75,688 California cars, but this afternoon the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is also demanding that Volkswagen put forth proposals to fix the diesel vehicles caught with so-called defeat devices, agreed with CARB’s decision.
Last week, Volkswagen chairman Herbert Diess said that he is optimistic that the automaker will explore the solution soon.
Last week, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) said “no deal” to Volkswagen’s proposal to buy back some of the vehicles that were outfitted with cheat devices.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) said Tuesday that it had rejected the proposed plan. VW likely could replace all affected engines without sharply exceeding the 6.5 billion euros ($7.06 billion) set aside for the 11 million vehicles it expects to recall worldwide. [Volkswagen] needs to make it right. The vast majority are 2.0-liter vehicles, some 482,000 of which are registered in the U.S.