The Obama administration yesterday ordered Volkswagen to recall nearly half a million cars, after the car giant was accused of cheating US emissions tests by fitting nearly half a million VW and Audi vehicles with devices designed to bypass environmental standards.
The Environmental Protection Agency ordered the recall of 482,000 diesel-powered vehicles sold in the US over the past six years which featured "defeat device" software that detected whether the vehicle was being subjected to an emissions test.
The cars would switch on emissions-control devices for tests but under all other circumstances could emit nitrogen dioxide at up to 40 times the permitted level, according to the US environmental regulator.
The EPA’s action covers vehicles including the VW Jetta, Beetle and the Audi A3, dating back to the 2009 model year, which went on sale in 2008.
Volkswagen has advertised its diesel vehicles as a fuel-efficient alternative to the petrol-powered vehicles that make up most of the US passenger car fleet. While diesel vehicles’ overall fuel consumption is lower than that for petrol-engined vehicles, their emissions of other pollutants is generally higher.
Cynthia Giles, an assistant administrator of the EPA, said five different diesel-powered VW and Audi vehicles featured the devices. When the cars were not being tested, the emissions controls were ineffective. “These violations are very serious,” she said. “We expected better from Volkswagen.”
Volkswagen declined to comment but said it was co-operating with the EPA.
Campaign groups have long suspected that carmakers use so-called defeat devices to achieve superior performances in laboratory tests to make their cars appear cleaner than they are in the real world. But their existence has so far been hard to prove.
A broader crackdown would add to the potential burden facing carmakers as they race to reduce carbon emissions and meet tough regulations, while facing political scrutiny over the effects of diesel pollution on air quality.
Questions will be raised in Europe, where the authorities are currently overhauling a testing regime viewed as wildly outdated. A report from the UK Committee on Climate Change this month said that, on average, on-the-road emissions in Europe were about 35 per cent higher than in laboratory tests advertised by manufacturers.
The EPA ordered VW to devise a remedy to remove the devices and recall all the affected vehicles at no cost to the owners - a process that could take up to a year. The company could theoretically also face fines per vehicle of up to $37,500 - a total of more than $18bn.
– (Financial Times Service)