US EPA declares Volkswagen V6s dirty too
Porsche, Audi sucked in as Dieselgate emissions scandal goes V6UPDATE 03/11/2015 3:00 PM: Volkswagen has issued a statement in response to the US EPA's announcement regarding the company's 3.0-litre V6 diesel engine, claiming it was not fitted with software that cheated emissions regulations:
"The
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) informed Volkswagen
Aktiengesellschaft on Monday that vehicles with V6 TDI engines had a
software function which had not been adequately described in the
application process. Volkswagen AG wishes to emphasize that no software
has been installed in the 3-liter V6 diesel power units to alter
emissions characteristics in a forbidden manner. Volkswagen will cooperate fully with the EPA clarify this matter in its entirety."
Also today, Volkswagen's local division said: "Volkswagen Group Australia is in contact with its head office and will keep its customers, the local authorities and the media updated with any relevant developments that directly affect the Australian market. We reiterate our commitment to support our customers, staff, dealers and partners through this process."
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Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal just got a lot worse. Just as the German car-making giant thought it was starting to see a way through the debacle that has threatened its survival, its emissions-cheating software has been found in its V6s, too.
Late yesterday (November 2) North America’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued its second Notice of Violation to Volkswagen, insisting it had found the Dieselgate 'defeat code' in the car-maker's V6 turbo-diesel engines manufactured between 2014 and 2016.
In a critical blow to the Volkswagen Group’s hopes of isolating the Dieselgate scandal to the Volkswagen brand alone, the EPA named Porsche’s model year 2015 Cayenne and Audi’s MY2016 Q5, A6 quattro, A7 quattro and A8, alongside Volkswagen’s MY2014 Touareg.
Porsche and Audi drive the cash flow of the entire Volkswagen Group, and finding illegal software in their models means the engineering-driven brand image of its twin profit pillars is now at risk.
The EPA has alleged that models with the affected V6 diesel engine have tailpipe NOx emissions up to nine times higher than the allowable limits. It chided Volkswagen by saying it “knew or should have known” that the cheating software “bypasses, defeats or renders inoperative elements of the vehicle design related to compliance”.
The V6 engines, the EPA insists, contain one or more Auxiliary Emission Control Device that was not disclosed to the EPA, effectively voiding the cars’ Certificate of Compliance for sale in the US.
The EPA is “authorized” to pass the results of its investigation to the US Department of Justice, with the maximum penalty shadowing Volkswagen of $US37,500 for each car sold in the US without a Certificate of Compliance and $US3750 for each car for individuals found guilty of the same offences.
The first two public months of the Dieselgate scandal have focused the attention of the world’s transport and environment departments on the four-cylinder EA189 turbo-diesels, with Volkswagen insistent that later-build EA288 four-cylinder engines and all of its V6 diesels were unaffected.
“The EPA’s investigation into this matter is continuing,” said the EPA in the Notice of Violation. “The EPA may find additional violations as the investigation continues.”
While the EPA would traditionally give a company negotiating room before issuing a Notice of Violation, its patience with Volkswagen has clearly run out after its 18 months of denials and maneuvering after its EA189 engines were originally found to be dirty.
The cheat on the V6 diesels was discovered through ongoing joint testing by the EPA and the California Air Review Board (CARB), the body which originally pursued Volkswagen over the EA189’s shortcomings, leading to its September 18 Notice of Violation.
The EPA and CARB found the new cheat code in its ongoing tests of all passenger-car diesel engines in the wake of the Dieselgate scandal and, naturally enough, it started with all Volkswagen Group engines. It has yet to say whether it has tested engines from other brands and found them operating cleanly.
Damningly, it alleged that software code in the engine control module of the 3.0-litre engines used similar “tells” to the EA189 to figure out it was being tested in a laboratory, then switched on emissions-cleaning protocols that switched off at 1371 seconds -- just one second after the initial phase of the FTP 75 Federal emissions test ended. It then transitions to its normal mode.
It alleged that it worked by turning on “low NOx temperature conditioning” mode, switching on a range of tweaks including changing the ignition timing, the rate of exhaust gas recirculation and the fuel pressure in the common-rail injection system.
The EPA’s Notice of Violation insisted the changes lowered the engine-out NOx levels and accelerated the heating up of the exhaust’s selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system.
“In this ‘normal mode’, the emission control system is immediately less effective,” the Notice of Violation alleged.
“In addition, when the vehicle starts under conditions that the software determines are not the beginning of FTP 75 Federal emission test procedure, the vehicle does not use the low NOx temperature conditioning mode at all.”
The EPA used its own National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory, CARB’s Hagen-Smit Laboratory and Environment Canada’s River Road Laboratory to compare the difference between the performance in laboratory and real-world environments, finding the V6 diesels didn’t turn on their defeat codes in real-world testing.
Dieselgate related reading:
VW boss offers Japan an apology for Dieselgate
Volkswagen creates new oversight role
US EPA investigates more VW software
Winterkorn finally stepping away
Germany issues compulsory recall
Audi clarifies 'inactive' claim
Aussie Volkswagens and Audis recalled
Dieselgate won't tarnish other German brands
Huge recall planned, other brands hit
Audis affected top two million
ACCC issues statement on VW emissions saga
Müller locked in as Volkswagen CEO
BMW forced to deny emissions rigging
Volkswagen boss Winterkorn to go as crisis spreads
Dieselgate worsens, 11m vehicles could be affected
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