Report: VW Diesels Won’t Comply With Clean Air Laws Even After Recall

Nine months after its diesel scandal broke, Volkswagen and U.S. regulators finally settled on a rough plan for remedying the crisis. But even after the cars are repaired, they still won’t comply with clean air laws, reports Automotive News.

Older 2.0-liter diesels will emit more pollution than allowed under current laws, according to the settlement released on June 28. These VW diesels include certain Beetle, Golf, and Jetta diesels dating back to 2009.

A fix will reduce emissions on VW diesels by 80 to 90 percent over current levels, the California Air Resources Board estimates. But that still won’t be enough to comply with clean air laws, and environmental advocates are criticizing the government for not putting more pressure on VW to fully remedy its mistakes.

“For reasons they didn’t state, they’re allowing fixed vehicles to not be fixed, but to allow vehicles to emit twice as much pollution as they otherwise would allow,” Daniel Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, told AN.

Meanwhile, consumers are still waiting eagerly for the repairs. Regulators still haven’t approved a fix, after a number of false starts. While there was early talk of adding a urea-tank system to the diesel cars, critics said the plan was too expensive.

The first vehicles set to receive repairs will be newer “third-generation” cars. VW is set to propose a fix as soon as July 29, and a plan could be approved as early as October. Repairs for older “second-generation” vehicles should be offered up by December and could be approved in March 2017. First-generation vehicles, which have been deemed the hardest to fix, will see a proposed fix in November and a possible approval by late January 2017.

VW has been trying hard to convince regulators its proposed fixes will work. However, it won’t be an easy task with the older cars, which have to be certified for up to 120,000 miles when the repairs are complete, even though that’s well past the life span of most of those vehicles.

Last month, VW agreed to spend around $15 billion on righting its wrongs when it comes to its 2.0-liter diesel cars. Buyers will be able to choose whether they want to have those cars repaired or sell them back to VW. The automaker is also spending billions of dollars on government programs aimed at reducing pollution. Meanwhile, VW recently suffered another setback when California rejected its proposed fix for 3.0-liter diesel engines.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)

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