WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. and California environmental regulators said on Friday they are investigating whether Volkswagen AG VOWG_p.DE deliberately circumvented clean air rules on diesel cars.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Volkswagen allegedly used software in four-cylinder Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars from model years 2009 to 2015 to circumvent emissions testing of certain air pollutants.
“Put simply, these cars contained software that turns off emissions controls when driving normally and turns them on when the car is undergoing an emissions test,†Cynthia Giles, an enforcement officer at the EPA, told reporters in a teleconference.
The feature, known as a “defeat device,†results in the cars emitting as much as 40 times emissions allowed to ensure public health is protected, Giles said.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Patrick Rucker and Bernie Woodall in Detroit; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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