Fix Due Friday For Volkswagen's Dirty Diesels
Volkswagen will have to submit Friday its plans to the California Air Resources Board and Environmental Protection Agency to fix hundreds of thousands of illegally polluting cars in the U.S., Reuters reported ( via Automotive News). Although a fix is due today, testing that fix could take months before it would be installed in cars.
The deadline for the automaker comes after it announced it would ask Michael Steiner, head of Porsche development and quality, to oversee Volkswagen’s compliance with officials worldwide to fix up to 11 million cars. In Europe, Volkswagen demonstrated a fix for its 1.6-liter diesel engine that included an air sensor and software update that cost around $10.68, according to German outlet Wirtschaftswoche.
Volkswagen has said that its newer cars would likely only need a software update to be compliant. Older cars that are equipped with EA189 2-liter diesel engines may need more costly fixes.
Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn told journalists Wednesday at the Los Angeles Auto Show that the automaker would address U.S. regulators in “days” and the automaker would announce its fix for those cars soon.
“I am personally hopeful we will be able to announce something soon about the remedies,” he said at the auto show.
CARB chairwoman Mary Nichols told German newspaper Handelsblatt that Volkswagen should buy back some of its older cars that would be too costly to repair.
“I think it is quite likely that they will end up buying back at least some portion of the fleet from the current owners,” Nichols told the newspaper, according to Reuters.
It’s likely that the remedies would either be installing a bigger lean nitrogen filter or retrofitting a urea injection system, in addition to software fixes. Either fix could take years to test, according to the Associated Press.
The automaker is preparing for a costly fix — or potential buy back — of its 2-liter cars. Volkswagen said it would cut more than $1 billion in plant investments for 2016 to help pay for the scandal.
Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller said the company would try to minimize future damage.
“What we definitely won’t do is make cuts at the expense of our future,” Müller said, according to Reuters.
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From Autocar today: "Volkswagen Group executives in the UK could be imprisoned for up to 10 years for their part in the emissions scandal, secretary of state for transport Patrick McLoughlin has revealed. Responding to enquiries from Louise Ellman MP, who chairs the Commons’ Transport Committee, McLoughlin revealed that the department for transport (DfT) could prosecute VW for providing “materially false” type approval information under the Road Vehicles (Approval) Regulations 2009 - an offence that is liable for an unlimited fine. He added that the Competition and Markets Authority could launch action under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 for unfair commercial practices, leaving VW liable for an unlimited fine or two years’ imprisonment, or both. Finally, he added that the Serious Fraud Office may prosecute VW for making a gain from false representations, an offence under the Fraud Act 2006. This subject to a maximum 10 years’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both." So as the wheels of government grind slowly on, this looks to answer the question whether VW broke the law, at least in Britain. The point still remains whether anyone will actually get off their doofus and prosecute, or just mill around and say they could if they really wanted to.
A guy goes in to his local VW dealer and buys a brand new Volkswagen. Then he drives it straight to the junkyard and asks that it be crushed. They check his paperwork, look at him funny but do as he requests. As the heavy slab mashes the car flat, a satisfied smile crosses his face. "That was a brand new Volkswagen, mister! Why did you want to do that?" asks the scrapyard operator. "Oh, I'm just avoiding years of expense and suffering as the middleman!"