United States authorities say VW diesel recall plan ‘not approvable’

Volkswagen in December gave the California air board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a plan for recalling almost 500,000 diesel vehicles implanted with “defeat device” software.

“We take our responsibility in overseeing this business very seriously”, Grundler said. After apologizing on behalf of Volkswagen, he confirmed that VW will be discussing with the EPA tomorrow on a possible solution for the diesel emissions problem. This rejection only applies to 2.0-litre diesels, not the 3.0-litre ones. More than 40 state attorneys general have launched an investigation of VW, and consumers and auto dealers have initiated their own legal claims against the global vehicle manufacturer.

Grudler said this was because, at the time, the EPA tested only passenger cars in the lab. It did have the technology to test emissions in real-world driving situations, but it only did those tests on heavy-duty diesel trucks.

“Since then, Volkswagen has had constructive discussions with CARB, including last week when we discussed a framework to remediate the TDI emissions issue”, VW said in an emailed statement.

The defeat device scandal came to light in September a year ago, and Volkswagen immediately agreed to the wrongdoing, stating about 11 million vehicles have the defeat device software installed globally.

The proposed plans for the 2.0-liter cars “contain gaps and lack sufficient detail”, a CARB press release said.

Tuesday’s rejection covers only Volkswagen and Audi cars with 2-liter diesel engines sold in California between 2009 and 2015.

Last week, the U.S. Justice Department, representing the EPA, filed a civil suit that could potentially expose VW to more than $20 billion in fines under the Clean Air Act.

CARB said on Tuesday Volkswagen’s proposals failed to address how the fix would affect the engine’s performance, emissions and vehicle safety.

The California regulators said they would continue to work with the carmaker and the EPA to find a solution but emphasized the danger to public health that VW continued to pose.

According to the regulators, the recall plan was too vague and slow and it was not acceptable for various other reasons, such as inadequate information of the affected cars, lacked owners’ information, and also proper details of how this fixing will be beneficial in the future.

In a statement issued by the EPA, it shared CARB’s sentiment toward Volkswagen, saying, “Volkswagen has not submitted an approvable recall plan to bring the vehicles into compliance and reduce pollution”.