The California Air Resources Board ordered Porsche and Audi vehicles using a 3.0-liter diesel engine to brought into compliance.
The Volkswagen Group faces new challenges in selling diesel-powered Porsche and Audi utility vehicles in the state of California.
The California Air Resources Board today sent an In Use Compliance letter notifying Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche to start the process necessary to recall and repair illegal emissions software in all 3.0-liter diesel vehicles, model years 2009 – 2015, sold in California.
Audi has played up the performance advantages of the 3.0-liter diesel engines used in utility vehicles, such as the Audi Q7, and the 3.0-liter diesel is popular in Porsche’s two most popular utility vehicles, the Cayenne and Macan.
California is also the single largest market for both Audi and Porsche and the new order from CARB targeting both brands is likely to put a crimp in sales.
In addition, CARB has begun an investigation of the new 2016 Porsche and Audi vehicles powered by the 3.0-liter diesel engines.
The companies now have 45 business days or until early December to assemble their plan and deliver it to the Air Resources Board.
This action is the result of an admission by officials at Audi AG, manufacturer of all the engines involved, that the vehicles contain three undisclosed auxiliary emissions control devices designed to “defeat” emission statements, according to new information.
(Volkswagen reverses course, acknowledges additional cheating. For more, Click Here.)
The order includes a finding by the board that the engine has “illegal emissions software” that causes it to spew more pollutants on the highway than it is allowed. The recall will cover models years 2009 to 2015.
Porsche said in a statement saying it will “continue its efforts to comply fully with all regulatory authorities” and that it “awaits detailed information from engine supplier, Audi AG, as to specific actions which will be necessary to correct and recertify” the engine.
The recall order is apart from actions involving Volkswagen Group when it comes to 2.0-liter, four-cylinder diesel engines. Volkswagen Group has submitted a proposal to bring those engines up to the standard as well after an admission that software had been inserted in nearly 500,000 of them to cheat on emissions tests.
(Click Here for details about Ford’s new stoned simulation suit.)
Volkswagen is facing slowing orders for new cars, with consumers shunning purchases after the automaker admitted this month it understated fuel usage and carbon dioxide emissions, VW’s top labor representative reported.
“There is caution in buying,” the German company’s works council chief Bernd Osterloh told reporters. “The issue has triggered a greater crisis of confidence (in VW products) than the nitrogen (emissions) issue.”
A report in the German-language press over the weekend said that Volkswagen’s top executives knew a year ago that some of the company’s cars were markedly less fuel efficient than had been officially stated, Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag reported, without specifying its sources.
(To see more about what 10 states have the worst drivers, Click Here.)
The Bild am Sonntag report appears to contradict VW’s assertion that it only uncovered the false carbon dioxide emissions labeling as part of efforts to clear up the diesel emissions scandal, which became public in September.
Months after becoming aware of excessive fuel consumption, former Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn decided this spring to pull one model off the market where the discrepancy was particularly pronounced, the Polo TDI BlueMotion, the paper cited sources close to Winterkorn as saying.
A VW spokesman declined to comment on whether VW had knowledge already a year ago of overstated fuel efficiency, according to Reuters.
I see this deal ending very badly for the EPA when independent investigations of the EPA’s actions are exposed regarding the 3.0L V6 VW/Audi/Porsche diesel engine.
For the record a simple software upgrade fixes all of the VW diesel engines the EPA or other agencies claim to be non-compliant. As the German motor authority confirmed there is no “defeat device” or illegal ECU code in the 3.0L VW/Audi/Porsche V-6 diesel engines, exactly as VW told the EPA a week after the EPA cited the EA 189 four cylinder engines as non-compliant. Two different independent reports state that an $11 or lower cost part and software update will make the 1.6L versions of the EA 189 series Diesel engines compliant.
For those who don’t know, the minor excess NOx emitted by the VW diesel engines (.3g/m limit), in question is trivial by comparison to the legal (.7g/m limit) quantity of NOx emitted by HD clean diesel powered vehicles in the U.S. which are allowed over twice the NOx of diesel powered passenger cars. HD trucks in the U.S. out number clean diesel passenger cars by a factor of 4 or more and these trucks average 6.4 mpg vs. 40+ mpg for VW and similar clean diesel passenger car engines. So HD trucks easily emit 600% more exhaust emissions compared to clean diesel passenger car engines in use in the U.S. simply on mpg alone. But wait HD diesels also have twice the allowed NOx so now we need to double the HD truck legal emissions to 1200% more than the passenger car clean diesel engines emit. We’re not finished yet however because the number of HD clean diesel trucks vs. clean diesel passenger cars in the U.S. is believed to be a factor of four or more depending on who’s statistics you use. So that means that HD trucks in the U.S. are currently and legally emitting as much as 4800% more NOx exhaust emissions than all of the clean diesel powered passenger cars in the U.S. The fact that clean diesel HD trucks are so clean and emit 4800% more emissions than clean diesel passenger cars in the U.S. illustrates how sensational the media reports have been on the VW scandal. But wait, let’s not forget that long haul clean diesel powered truckers routinely travel 50,000 miles per year. That is a factor of at least three compared to the average passenger car driver. So now we’re talking legal emissions by HD trucks in the U.S. that is at least 14,000% greater than all of the exhaust emissions from clean diesel powered passenger cars in the U.S.
How many people bother to get the facts vs. believing the media hoopla perpetuated regarding the emissions scandal?
Naturally if you can drive the cost up and the performance down on passenger clean diesel powered cars, you can dupe some people into buying over-priced, impractical EVs with toxic batteries that society will end up dealing with very soon.
Gt101 comment is very interesting and should be taken into consideration in the setting of laws and regulations regarding emissions. That said, it really does not address the issue at hand, which is: Truth and Integrity. On that that count VW has failed significantly and has done a lot of harm to itself, the German industry as a whole and the car business.
Klaus,
We do not know what VW management knew regarding the software code violations. Two independent investigation teams have indicated they believe between 10-30 engineers and programmers were the only ones who knew about the software violations on the EA 189 four cyl. diesel engines – which in itself is still trivial and certainly not even remotely worthy of the proposed fines or 300 U.S. lawsuits. The 3.0L V6 Diesel engine has been cleared of any software issues by the German motor authority KBA after ad extensive investigation. (Both countries have regs against emissions “defeat devices”). The KBA has already forced a 2.4 million EA 189 vehicle recall to update the software.
What is so amazing about this trivial matter is the complete disconnect between reality and the perceived injustice. How can minor violations in exhaust emissions by design or accident be so serious as to cause VW to incur billions of dollars in fines yet GM’s defective ignition switch which resulted in 100+ deaths and a reported mid-level management cover up, be far, far less punished? I certainly believe that VW should be fined as a company for the emissions violations but the U.S. seems to have become a monster out for revenge over a trivial issue be it exhaust emissions or other minor reporting issues. Does anyone believe that other auto companies are faultless in reporting errors or vehicular compliance? If so then these people are naïve as even the most honest companies make mistakes from time to time. The VW cost vs. tangible damage or credibility simply does not add up and other countries are asking why the U.S. is looking to destroy VW and harm so many innocent people in the process.