EPA says to take tougher stance on auto emissions tests

In a recent press release by the manufacturer, it seems that the situation is even worse.

The company is reeling after it admitted installing software on the vehicles to pass emissions tests, including those mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Air Act.

– The Wolfburg-based firm has said that it will set aside nearly 6.5 billion euros in provisions this quarter to cover costs related to the scandal.

The agency added that this was specifically “for the purposes of investigating a potential defeat device” and said manufacturers will be required to supply production cars for testing, as well as expecting this to add time to the certification process before the vehicle goes on sale.

The agency is notifying all automakers that it is stepping up its activities and that it will be keeping their cars longer and driving them further during routine testing, and that it will be borrowing cars from consumers and conducting random audits on cars coming off of the assembly line, as it has previously done.

VW was able to fool the EPA because the agency only tested the cars on treadmill-like devices called dynamometers and didn’t use portable test equipment on real roads.

The EPA has 23 devices for testing on-road driving emissions, but Grundler said those have usually been dedicated to heavy-duty truck use.

One way would be to update the software so the pollution-control systems are always on, but there is an inherent trade-off between performance and emissions, Zheng said.

“They don’t need to know”, Grundler, speaking to reporters on a conference call, said of the automakers.

Viles’ suit was filed Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida and seeks more than $5 million in damages, accusing the carmaker of false advertising and other deceptive practices. It markets its cars on a promise of clean performance, but tells the Commission its engines take years to design and new pollution standards should not be rushed.

The testing, officials say, begins today.

“We must continue to improve and adapt our oversight, and we will”, said Janet McCabe, acting head of the EPA’s air pollution office. The controls are turned off during normal driving, the EPA said, allowing the cars to emit more than the legal limit of pollutants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is looking to revamp the way it tests emissions for all automobiles in the wake of the scandal over Volkswagen’s manipulation of emissions data. “We don’t think this will be limited to Volkswagen”.

The ARB and the EPA delayed taking action as VW “continued to assert… that the increased emissions from these vehicles could be attributed various technical issues and unexpected in-use conditions”, according to an EPA letter sent to Volkswagen Friday. “When the device detects that the vehicle is run in a test cycle, it switches the engine configuration to comply with emission standards”.

I’ve seen some questions raised about what the so-called clean diesel standards accomplish and a few commenters arguing that this type of regulation represents government overreach.