► EPA agency sues VW in US
► Lawsuit filed in Detroit
► #Dieselgate latest news
Volkswagen is being sued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US over its so-called Dieselgate scandal. It’s the biggest lawsuit yet over VW’s deliberate cheating in emissions tests Stateside, where ‘defeat devices’ changed engine tuning to pass lab tests.
Globally, 11 million vehicles have been implicated in the emissions crisis and 600,000 of those were in America, plunging the world’s biggest car making group into crisis with falling sales and wholesale management clear-out.
The Volkswagen emissions scandal: an explainer.
The EPA papers, filed in Detroit by the justice department, claim that VW deliberately ‘violated’ clean-air laws by selling cars that differed from those whose emissions were approved by the agency for US sale.
The EPA sues Volkswagen: the legal paperwork
The filing by the EPA notes: ‘The complaint alleges that nearly 600,000 diesel engine vehicles had illegal defeat devices installed that impair their emission control systems and cause emissions to exceed EPA’s standards, resulting in harmful air pollution.’
Volkswagen is facing criminal prosecutions as well as civil action; it has set aside €6.7bn (£4.6bn) to pay for the fall-out in the emissions crisis and the cost of fixing affected cars. No wonder it posted its first quarterly loss in 15 years in autumn 2015, as it lost €2.5bn.
Click here to find out how VW plans to fix the EA189 engine, one of those affected by the emissions scandal.
