EPA says will ‘aggressively’ test other models after VW

The testing would be in addition to the standard emissions test cycles already in place, the EPA said.

After tips from researchers in Europe and the University of West Virginia, California and federal regulators discovered that VW had buried an algorithm in 100 million lines of computer code in its vehicle electronics that allows the cars to emit up to 40 times the legally allowed amount of nitrogen oxide.

“We’re actually making sure that this is a one-off”, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said Friday.

2009-15 Volkswagen Jetta, Passat, SportWagen, Beetle and Audi A3 with the diesel engines are some the VW cars that have been affected with the hidden bit software scheme.

The revelations about VW led to unwanted scrutiny for the EPA. The EPA now plans to examine vehicles for so-called defeat devices. “We have 23 of these measurement systems and they are not cheap”, he said.

On a conference call today, the EPA told reporters that it is notifying all automakers selling vehicles in the USA that it’s “stepping up” surveillance of emissions being released by new models. He insists, “It’s not a question of equipment or technology or capability”.

Hours after New York party, which according to TMZ cost $1m, the company said 11 million of its cars globally were fitted with engines that had shown a “noticeable deviation” in emission levels between testing and road use. But it would add additional time and rigor to the testing process, he said.

Mark Dearman, the attorney working on the dealership lawsuit, said they would be seeking compensation for lost value of both new and used cars in dealers’ inventories as well as damage to their reputation that could hurt sales in the future.

The EPA initially identified the problem in almost 500,000 diesel cars sold in the United States since 2008.

This Volkswagen scandal is the largest the company has seen in its 78 years of operation.

The sources said it would give initial findings from an internal investigation into who was responsible for programming some diesel cars to detect when they were being tested and alter the running of the engines to hide their true emissions.

The EPA revealed that VW has been violating the Clean Air Act and could be subject to fines of as much as $18 billion.

The European Union is also to introduce road tests for vehicle emissions from January next year. Earlier this year the agency updated gas mileage tests after some automakers were caught with inflated window sticker estimates.