Volkswagen’s problems related to its diesel emissions scandal isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, it might have just gotten worse. According to a press release issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, VW is once again being tagged with a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act after it was reportedly discovered that its bigger diesel engines also had devices that were installed to cheat emissions tests.
This discovery could lead to another bruising black eye to the German automaker and it figures to get even worse now that Audi and Porsche have been thrown into the mix. The new NOV alleges that Volkswagen, as the parent company of VW, Audi, and Porsche, installed a similar defeat device in a number of 2014 to 2016 model year VW, Audi, and Porsche light duty diesel models equipped with 3.0-liter six-cylinder engines. The objective of these defeat devices is similar to that found on the four-cylinder diesel models and that’s to intentionally mask the engine’s emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx) during emissions tests. In real-driving, these engines were found to emit up to nine times the EPA’s standard.
The NOV also pointed to the discovery of these new violations, which happened after the first NOV for its 2.0-liter four-cylinder diesel engines was issued to Volkswagen back in September 18, 2015. The EPA followed that up by testing all 2015 and 2016 light duty diesel models available in the U.S using updated testing procedures specifically designed to detect these defeat devices. These tests, which were performance by the EPA’s National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory, CARB’s Haagen-Smit Laboratory, and Environment Canada’s River Road Laboratory, unearthed more models that had their own defeat devices.
Among the models affected in the new NOV include the 2014 Volkswagen Touareg, the 2015 Porsche Cayenne, and the 2016 Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L, and Q5. The NOV is approximating that over 10,000 diesel passenger cars already sold in the US since MY 2014 are affected, as are an unknown number 2016 models.
For its part, Volkswagen has denied any knowledge of this new cheating fiasco, explaining that the cars the EPA is referring to now "had a software function which had not been adequately described in the application process." This function, according to VW, is not capable of altering emissions characteristics in a "forbidden manner."
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