The origin of the case was a report last year by the International Council for Clean Transportation and West Virginia University that documented elevated emissions from some Volkswagen cars. Following the Transport and Environment's study that ﻿we reported last week, which claimed that ﻿90% of new diesel cars exceed EU pollution limits as manufacturers had been making alterations to cars in order to pass emissions tests; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has accused Volkswagen (VW) of installing software on cars sold in the US that allowed them to cheat on pollution measurement tests. The EPA said it was investigating whether VW used a "defeat device" - an illegal device designed to make vehicles appear cleaner than they really are when tested by official emission tests - or if there Volkswagen faces an $18bn penalty over the device, which has been cheating the clean-air standards during official emissions testing.
Following the Transport and Environment's study that ﻿we reported last week, which claimed that ﻿90% of new diesel cars exceed EU pollution limits as manufacturers had been making alterations to cars in order to pass emissions tests; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has accused Volkswagen (VW) of installing software on cars sold in the US that allowed them to cheat on pollution measurement tests. The EPA said it was investigating whether VW used a "defeat device" - an illegal device designed to make vehicles appear cleaner than they really are when tested by official emission tests - or if there Volkswagen faces an $18bn penalty over the device, which has been cheating the clean-air standards during official emissions testing.