California Rejects VW Recall Plan to Fix Emissions-Cheating Vehicles

“VW’s submissions are incomplete, substantially deficient, and fall far short of meeting the legal requirements to return these vehicles to the claimed certified condition”, the regulators wrote in a letter to VW. The state said it will continue its investigation as well as talks with VW.

However, the automaker says the rejection was of a plan submitted in December and does not reflect its current thinking.

“Since then, Volkswagen has had constructive discussions with CARB, including last week when we discussed a framework”, the statement said.

Earlier, the EPA reportedly said Volkswagen danced around the issue for year before coming clean.

CARB said VW’s recall plan lacks sufficient detail and does not adequately address questions of vehicle performance.

VW first admitted in September that the suspect software was installed in cars with its popular 2.0-liter diesel engines. As stated today by CARB, “Today’s actions do not preclude a recall, but allow for a broader array of potential remedies”. Ars contacted CARB for comment and will update this story if we receive a response.

But remarks made later to reporters in a scrum got Mueller into trouble, as VW’s credibility was questioned when he indicated the company simply misunderstood USA regulations in engineering its deceptive diesel-emissions system, a soundbite carried by broadcast news service NPR.

VW said that Mueller was aware that his choice of words caused irritation and said he wanted the USA public to know that his apology for the company’s breach of trust was sincere and honest. Sales in the second half of 2015 dropped by as much as 25% in some regions of the country, in large part because without EPA approval the company was forbidden to sell new and certain certified used diesel cars – which typically account for about 25% of overall sales. The agency said Tuesday that it agreed with the California board that the plan wasn’t approvable.

The German automaker reiterated Tuesday that it’s committed to cooperating with regulators in California and elsewhere and said it will present a reworked proposal to the EPA tomorrow at the meeting in Washington. Over 600,000 vehicles in the United States are affected, which means that there’s a lot of unhappy owners out there still waiting for a fix. Volkswagen faces a February 2 deadline to tell California regulators how it plans to recall and fix cars with 3-liter engines.

Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Müller is scheduled to meet with US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Gina McCarthy on Wednesday to cover the Dieselgate scandal, which spread to 11 million cars worldwide, across four different Volkswagen brands.