Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that Volkswagen used unorthodox techniques in order to pass the emission tests for the 2.0 TDI Clean Diesel engines in the Jetta, Beetle, Passat and A3 models. As a result, the German car manufacturer has broken the Clean Air Act and now it is facing lots of problems.
"These violations are very serious, not only because illegal defeat devices result in excess emissions many times the allowable standard, but also because VW was concealing the facts from EPA, the State of California and consumers. We expected better from VW", said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.
The software code developed by Volkswagen was created in order to manipulate EPA tests regarding emissions.
Now, Volkswagen is facing a 37.500 USD fine for 482.000 cars sold which translates to a total of 18 billion USD. For now this huge scandal is under investigation. In order to clean the company, Martin Winterkorn has issued a public statement.
"I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public. We will do everything necessary in order to reverse the damage this has caused", said Martin Winterkorn.
Source: autonews
