EPA may fine VW
 

Looks like this could mean $18 billion.

"The violations pertain to four-cylinder diesel engine Jettas, Beetles, Audi A3 and Golf models built between 2009 and 2015, and Passat models made between 2014 and 2015. “Volkswagen admitted that the cars have defeat devices,” the EPA said. In a statement to CNBC, Volkswagen said they are cooperating with investigation and are unable to comment further."

EPA accuses Volkswagen of cheating Clean Air Act, orders recall | MSNBC

James

Oh dang. My wife has one of these.
I'll have to keep an eye on this.

Hey, if you an get out of doing the recall I would. It may even fool the system if there is a real problem, allowing you to keep the car on the road. Cool! I personally hate the EPA/CARB, it's a huge money making scam to force people to buy new cars. That's why I gutted the cats on my Insight, and will be running a straight pipe on my Mustang with a good tune.

CARB just got approved to get 2 new board members and will be cracking down on pollution in "poor areas" who know what that really means!

They cheated the clean air act?
More like they scammed the scammers.

Right !!! F the gubmint in all that blue sky crap. I preefer my skies to be gray.
I doing all this fo the money.

( * sarcasm )

The question is what did the "normal" mode or defeat emissions mode do? Better economy? More power? I'm surprised VW even bothered unless the EPA passing mode left the car severly underpowered. Now if you are an owner would you even want the car to be "fixed"

They make it sound like some sophisticated AI software thing that is nefariously looking for epa test conditions somehow. It is probably as simple/common as full throttle enrichment.

The CARB standards have been critical for smog reduction in California, which was important both environmentalls and in terms of public health. Wanting revisions to the standards, or criticizing enforcement seems like a good debate. But hating the standards just because is a little like hating science or public health.

I am curious about what VW actually did with the electronics. Full throttle enrichment maybe, as p-hack says. K like that idea, because it might explain the report's mention that the illegal changes increase NOx dramatically.

[EDIT: deleted graph of stoich for a gas engine]

What else could they be doing?

Maybe at speed for a sustained period of time, the ECU chages parameter too, perhaps the a super-lean mix?

VW / Audi Charged With Fraud On TDI Software
 

This is huge.

VW, Audi TDI Diesel Cars Had 'Defeat Device' That Violated EPA Rules, 500K Cars Recalled: BREAKING