US regulators charged Volkswagen Friday with manufacturing autos designed to evade government pollution controls and said the German auto should fix nearly 500,000 cars with the defect. Volkswagen designed software to meet clean-air standards during official emissions testing, but that turned off during normal operations, US and California regulators charged. As a result, the diesel cars emit greater-than-allowed quantities of pollution linked to smog and various health ills.
"Using a defeat device in cars to evade clean air standards is illegal and a threat to public health," said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency. Both the EPA and the California Air Resources Board have launched investigations into the illegal actions. The cars employed a sophisticated software algorithm to detect when the car was undergoing official emissions testing and turn on full emissions controls only on that time. When EPA and California demanded an explanation this month, Volkswagen admitted that cars contained defeat devices, the EPA said.
"Our goal now is to ensure that the affected cars are brought into compliance, to dig more deeply into the extent and implications of Volkswagen's efforts to cheat on clean air rules, and to take appropriate further action," said Richard Corey, executive officer at the California Air Resources Board. Volkswagen said it had received notice of the investigation from the EPA, the California board and the Department of Justice. "VW is co-operating with the investigation; we are unable to comment further at this time." The allegations cover 482,000 diesel models of Volkswagen Jetta, Beetle and Golf for 2009-2015 and the Audi A3 for the same years.
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