Report: Volkswagen's Fix is New Catalytic Converter

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Engineers at Volkswagen have proposed fitting a catalytic converter to more than 400,000 cars in the U.S. to comply with emissions, the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported Sunday ( via Reuters).

The costly and lengthy fix could bring into compliance cars that Volkswagen admitted cheated diesel emissions test through an illegal “defeat device” that reduced nitrogen oxides by up to 40 times during test cycles.

Officials at Volkswagen didn’t comment on the report.

Volkswagen and officials from the Environmental Protection Agency have struggled to agree on how to fix more than 500,000 illegally polluting cars in the U.S. Last week, the Justice Department on behalf of the EPA sued Volkswagen for the cars, seeking up to $48 billion in damages and penalties. In announcing the lawsuit, EPA deputy Cynthia Giles said Volkswagen had not “produced an acceptable way forward” with its proposals to fix its cars.

German newspapers have reported that Volkswagen may be preparing to buy back more than 100,000 cars in the U.S. if they couldn’t be repaired.

According to the Bild am Sonntag report, the catalytic converters would only be fitted to cars equipped with Volkswagen’s EA 189 engine. In testimony to Congress, Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn told officials that newer cars would only need a software update to bring those cars into compliance with the law.


Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • PRNDLOL PRNDLOL on Jan 10, 2016

    I think owners should spring for the TruCoat while their car is in for the emissions fix. I mean if they don't they'll get oxidation problems.

  • Pragmatist Pragmatist on Jan 10, 2016

    As a side point, this underscores the extreme hypocrisy of the EPA. Last year, due to carelessness, and shortcutting, EPA released 3 million gallons of toxic water into a Colorado River tributary. They didn't notify locals along the river till later. If this had been a private corporation, there would have been millions or billions in fines, very possibly jail time. But... no one was jailed, no one was fired, indeed as far as we know, no one was even demoted. Sucks doesn't it. Yes VW did screw up big time. But we see two different scenarios depending if the government screws up or others do. [Similar to user data hackings. Companies get fined hugely, but the government has had some of the worst hacks of all... business as usual.]

    • See 2 previous
    • NickS NickS on Jan 11, 2016

      @pragmatist Pro tip: if you want to make a political point about the toxic spill, the EPA or the gubmint, private v public sector accountability, Congress, etc, you may want to reconsider posting on an article that has nothing to do with any of that. Bonus tip: opinions are a dime a dozen.

  • Corollaman Corollaman on Jan 10, 2016

    Most likely the cat will need to be replaced often, thus becoming an expensive fix, this is a band-aid solution for a bog problem

  • Seth1065 Seth1065 on Jan 10, 2016

    I think the other issue that VW has to deal with, how long do they have to warranty the new parts, this fix is rushed at best and most of these cars are at least 5 years old already and pretty high miles, tdi tend to have more miles on them, does vw want another ten years of possible head aches.

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