Regulators reject plan to fix 85,000 diesel Volkswagens
The California Air Resources Board claims VW is still being vague about its 3.0L engines.
Although Volkswagen has those ambitious plans to launch 30 new electric vehicles in the next 10 years, the German automaker is still on the hook for that $14.7 billion class-action settlement related to the diesel emissions scandal. While VW has already agreed to buy back nearly half a million 2.0L diesel engine vehicles, the California Air Resources Board rejected the company's plan to fix another 85,000 3.0L diesel VWs, Audis and Porsches that are still on the road.
As Ars Technica reports today, the CARB called VW's plan "substantially deficient" and that it "fall[s] far short" of the state regulator's standards. CARB also claims Volkswagen "failed to disclose and provide a complete description of all defeat devices" and accuses the company of being vague about how the fix will actually affect the vehicles' emissions, fuel economy, and On Board Diagnostics systems. According to a statement provided to Ars, however, the rejection is just "a procedural step under California state law."
It is worth noting that CARB initially rejected the 2.0L recall plan citing similar reasons. According to Volkswagen's attorneys, the defeat devices on the 3.0L vehicles are different and they initially believed those vehicles could be fixed without a full-scale buyback program.
