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EPA Rejects Volkswagen’s Proposed Diesel Emissions Fix

Volkswagen’s chief executive is to report to a panel of senior supervisory board members this month on his progress in resolving a scandal over rigged emissions tests affecting up to 11 million vehicles, a person close to the matter said.

At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week, Herbert Diess, chairman of Volkswagen passenger cars, was contrite and vowed to make things right with the automaker’s customers.

The agency’s reply elaborated its decision without specifying what kinds of technical changes the automaker had proposed, though its complete reply to the automaker contained documents which had not been made public on CARB’s website.

It’s not yet game-over, though: California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) rejected the proposal as “incomplete” rather than inadequate, and wants more information.

Mueller wouldn’t say if the company plans to buy back any of the cars. He added: “It gives us more options. Also, we had some targets for our technical engineers, and they solved this problem and reached targets with some software solutions which haven’t been compatible to the American law”. The state said it will continue its investigation as well as talks with VW.

“Had we tested it using our on-road test cycles or using it in different types of configurations, we would have found it”, Christopher Grundler, director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality at the EPA, said Wednesday at the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit.

VW said the letter referred to its initial recall plans submitted to California in December.

“Since then, Volkswagen has had constructive discussions with CARB, including last week when we discussed a framework”, the statement said.

Also bad is the fact that CARB doesn’t seem entirely convinced by the fix Volkswagen has proposed (likely, catalytic converters).

EPA said in a statement it agreed with California “that Volkswagen has not submitted an approvable recall plan to bring the vehicles into compliance and reduce pollution”. It is his first visit to the U.S. since being installed as head of the company.

Only the proposal to fix 2.0-liter diesel engines, the most common affected, was rejected. He expected the trip to mold broken hearts and fix wounds, but failed to do so.

On Tuesday, United States and California regulators rejected the company’s proposed fix for the estimated 580,000 vehicles affected in the country by its emissions scandal.

Matthias Mueller

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