Brussels, 03/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 2 November, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opened a new chapter in the scandal involving Volkswagen cheat devices, by revealing that it had discovered similar systems in the group's high-end range of cars, similarly to those sold on the mass market.
The EPA has published a second infringements recommendation against Volkswagen for having failed to respect the Clean Air Act (CAA). In addition to Volkswagen, the Audi and Porsche manufacturers belonging to this German group may have also equipped their V6 3-litre diesel engines on their Volkswagen Touareg 2014, Porsche Cayenne 2015, Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L and AQ5 models with these fraudulent emissions altering devices.
In a press release, the EPA stated: “When the vehicle senses that it is undergoing a federal emissions test procedure, it operates in a low NOx 'temperature conditioning' mode”. Under that mode, the vehicle meets emission standards. But “At exactly one second after the completion of the initial phases of the standard test procedure, the vehicle immediately changes a number of operating parameters that increase NOx emissions and indicates in the software that it is transitioning to 'normal mode', where emissions of NOx increase up to nine times the EPA standard, depending on the vehicle and type of driving conditions”. This fraud could involve around 10,000 vehicles sold on US territory since 2014, a figure which comes on top of the 482,000 small cylinder 2 L vehicles sold since 2008, following the revelations made by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) and the EPA last September (see EUROPE 11394).
“VW has once again failed its obligation to comply with the law that protects clean air for all Americans”, said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the Office for EPA's Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. Richard Corey, a director at the ARB, explained: “This is a very serious public health matter. ARB and EPA will continue to conduct a rigorous investigation that includes testing more vehicles until all of the facts are out in the open”. On 25 September last, the ARB sent a letter to all automobile manufacturers on US territory to inform them that a nationwide investigation would be carried out to establish whether tampering had also occurred among other car manufacturers.
Following these new revelations, the Volkswagen group immediately rejected them and in a press release indicated that no fraudulent software had been installed on V6 3-litre engines to alter the emissions from them in a fraudulent way. It subsequently announced that it would fully cooperate with the EPA in its investigations.
European car manufacturers kept at bay. According to policy team director, the ACEA has sent a letter to ministers in which the organisation explained it considered that “they understand that the US want to challenge the leadership role that European manufacturers have taken globally with this [diesel] technology”. Member states, particularly Germany, are carrying out national level investigations into European manufacturers' practices (see EUROPE 11396) and in a resolution voted for during the plenary session last week, (see EUROPE 11417), MEPs called for a European enquiry to be launched, led by the Commission.
Paradoxically, despite the Volkswagen scandal continuing to make waves, member states have adopted pollutant gas emissions measures that will largely help to go beyond the legal threshold set on this issue by 2019 (see EUROPE 11421), which have provoked such a storm amongst politicians and the media given the approaching Paris Climate Conference (COP21). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)