The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will make sweeping changes in the way it tests for diesel emissions after getting duped by clandestine software in Volkswagen cars for seven years. The cars’ 4.9-liter V-8 engines were tuned to turn off pollution controls when the air conditioning ran, the EPA said at the time.
A lot of attention has been focused this week on Volkswagen and the scandal that it cheated on emissions tests its vehicles must pass to help combat air pollution.
A “defeat device” is exactly what Volkswagen is in trouble for – cheating on the test that watches the level of harmful emissions vehicles release.
The agency will send a letter to all manufacturers to notify them that it’s stepping up its emissions policing.
The agency now doesn’t conduct tests under real-word driving conditions, and requires automakers instead to submit design certificates for compliance, the paper said.
AutoNation’s six Volkswagen and eight Audi dealerships in the USA are telling customers that the cars are safe to drive and promising to call them as soon as they know more about repairs. So there is a sophisticated and powerful computer inside all cars, and that was where this algorithm, this second routine, was embedded.
EPA and CARB uncovered the defeat device software after independent analysis by researchers at West Virginia University, working with the global Council on Clean Transportation, a nongovernmental organization.
Earlier this week, Volkswagen said 11 million vehicles worldwide were fitted with software similar to the kind that allowed the company to cheat US tests, but said it was not turned on in the bulk of them. Across the USA, the maximum additional pollution emitted from these half-million vehicles has been compared to bringing a new coal-fired power plant online.
The company is giving its United States dealers some financial support to offset the loss in business, including $300 on each auto sold in September and a bonus that will pay 1% of the sticker price on cars sold in the third and fourth quarters, according to a dealer notice reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. On Wednesday, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned and took responsibility for the “irregularities” found by USA inspectors – a scandal that has wiped out billions in the company’s market value and raised the possibility of criminal investigations and billions more in fines.
The EPA is sending a letter to automakers informing them that emissions monitoring is being enhanced. For example, the federal EPA is toughening standards created to curb sulfur emissions from cars.
“We discovered some very odd anomalies”, Young said.
“I think their feet should be held to the fire”.
In another incident back in 2012, Hyundai-Kia were put under the microscope for advertising best-in-class fuel economy of “40 MPG” for several models when in reality none of the cars were achieving as much.
The EPA’s Federal Register defines a “defeat device” as “a type of AECD [auxiliary emission control device] that reduces the effectiveness of vehicle emission controls in situations when such reduction in effectiveness is not approved or permitted by EPA”.