Volkswagen’s recall plans rejected by U.S. environmental regulators

The California Air Resources Board said the recall plan for vehicles including the Beetle and Jetta did not meet its standards and was “unacceptable”.

“Basically, what happened is they designed these vehicles in a way around these defeat devices, so they have to figure out at that point how they’re going to undo that”, says Clegern.

In the United States alone the company is facing potentially tens of billions of dollars in fines over the scandal.

CARB said VW’s plans “are incomplete, substantially deficient, and fall far short of meeting the legal requirements” to rectify the emissions problem. “It’s not only our cars that we have to fix”.

The U.S. recall could reach 600,000 autos – 482,000 with 2-liter engines the company has admitted are defective, as well as those with 3-liter engines that regulators claim are also faulty. The organization also noted Volkswagen didn’t provide enough information about the proposed repairs to complete a technical evaluation of the fix.

The proposed plans contain gaps and lack sufficient detail.

The suit was filed on behalf of the EPA, which announced yesterday that it concurs with CARB’s rejection.

It seems that Volkswagen Group knew its recall plans for diesel Audis, Jettas, Golfs, Passats, and Beetles wouldn’t fly with state regulators. As stated today by CARB, “Today’s actions do not preclude a recall, but allow for a broader array of potential remedies”.

Following the meeting both Müller and McCarthy said that they would continue to work together to find a solution to the crisis, although details on whether concrete plans had been agreed upon and what those plans entailed were not disclosed.

One of those AGs, Connecticut’s George Jepsen, said he is disturbed by Mueller’s comments to reporters at the Detroit Auto Show that seemed to downplay the seriousness of the matter.

Matthias Mueller: Frankly spoken, it was a technical problem. Muller said the controversy over the so-called defeat devices began with a “misunderstanding” of federal laws. If they present them with another plan and that’s rejected, we can start to see some real concern.

Mueller backtracked on Monday, saying, “We fully accept the violation”.

Last week, Volkswagen chairman Herbert Diess said that he is optimistic that the automaker will explore the solution soon.

A glimmer of hope is that VW told USA Today and media outlets, alike, Tuesday, that the rejection of its proposed recall pertains to a fix blueprint submitted to US regulators and CARB in December, and since then that the automaker has had significant conversations with CARB.