More Volkswagen, Audi Vehicles Included in EPA's 3-liter Diesel Notice of Violation

Mark Stevenson
by Mark Stevenson

During a meeting Thursday between the Environmental Protection Agency, Volkswagen and Audi, officials from the automakers told the regulator an emissions program for 3-liter turbodiesel engines is also used on 2009 through 2016 model year vehicles, the EPA said in a statement today.

An earlier statement from the EPA on November 2 pointed the finger at a limited number of models and model years equipped with the 3-liter diesels, even though other model years of those same vehicles are virtually identical with regards to their emissions systems.

In the latest statement, the EPA is still calling the emissions program a defeat device, though Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche have yet to recant their claim that the emissions program is legal and doesn’t violate emissions laws.

The admission from Volkswagen and Audi explains the confusion experienced by members of a Touareg enthusiast forum. Those members were flummoxed that the 2014 Volkswagen Touareg was identified by the EPA as using the auxiliary emissions control device, though earlier models that used the same drivetrain and ECU were not.

Volkswagen and Audi are supposed to detail to the EPA today a fix for illegally polluting four-cylinder diesels, though there’s been no word on whether that has happened or not at the time of publication.

Mark Stevenson
Mark Stevenson

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  • Paddan Paddan on Nov 21, 2015

    As Audi says, "Truth in engineering." Yup.

  • PriusV16 PriusV16 on Nov 21, 2015

    "Meanwhile, in Germany, VW's homeland....." Over here in Germany, VW is now beginning to feel the ramifications of their various recent scandals -- they did not only lie and cheat wrt to NOx, but also about the levels of CO2 emissions and fuel consumption, at least over here. And the shenanigans regarding the CO2 levels and fuel consumption do not only affect the diesel engines. This week, it was announced that VW would be giving vouchers to its U.S. customers to at least partially make up for all the damage done and the hassles that their customers have to go through now. VW DOESN'T offer these vouchers to its German customers, however, which created an uproar among its German clientele and in the German auto and news press. Their unwillingness to extend this goodwill gesture with the vouchers to German car buyers has further dragged down their image in Germany, and that's actually quite remarkable since VW has always been considered the Golden Cow of the German industrial landscape. German VW dalers are now openly complaining that since the CO2 and fuel consumption issues were made public, the business at their dealerships is practically dead. German VW buyers may have been very loyal in the past, but even they don't like to be treated as fools. (Then again, foreign competitors on the German market such as Renault, Fiat, the Japanese, Koreans etc. are so far *not* reporting an increase in demand for THEIR vehicles. It seems that potential VW customers are currently just holding back instead of jumping ships.) People here also question if the new CEO, Müller, is the right person for this job, considering that he is not an outsider and might have a vested interest himself in concealing some important facts and past events within VW wrt to that whole emissions affair. Even on their home market, VW is walking on very thin ice now, but they still seem to ignore some of the cracks in the ice they're walking on. Pride comes before a fall, I guess.

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    • Notadude Notadude on Nov 21, 2015

      I was wondering what VW owners in other countries thought about the US "goodwill gesture." It reminds me of a parent who hands off presents to one of his children while his other children look on, empty handed.

  • Geekcarlover Geekcarlover on Nov 21, 2015

    And the band played on....

  • Jdmcomp Jdmcomp on Nov 22, 2015

    I can see it now, billions of dollars in potential fines and cost to retrofit cars being used to arm twist VW into building large facilities in the US to build their cars and trucks. Blackmail put to good use maybe. Fines will just wind up as govt waste where plants building Audis will provide jobs for Americans. Stay tuned for the announcements. Or is Obuthead just too thick to see the profit in this arrangement.

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