Owners of TDI-badged Volkswagen or Audi models with the 2.0-liter turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine may soon see some resolution to an emissions scandal that has effectively left them hanging for nearly a year. With last week?s preliminary approval, it?s now nearly a done deal that hundreds of thousands of owners will be able to sell back their cars, beginning this fall.
Not all owners will want to give up their vehicles?and the cars that remain on the road are going to rehab. Volkswagen?s estimated $10.033 billion remedy cost hinges on the approval of a plan to fix a portion of these models?tens of thousands of them?to bring them close to emissions compliance. If that plan isn?t approved, VW?s settlement costs could go significantly higher. It?s in Volkswagen?s interest to put its best effort into a modification that will bring these cars down to the emissions levels at which U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will accept them. It now appears that the automaker has done exactly that, with the submission of a plan for the Generation 3 TDI four-cylinder that was sold in a range of vehicles in the 2015 model year.
?The agencies have started to receive information from Volkswagen regarding a proposed emissions modification for the 2.0-liter Generation 3 vehicles,? confirmed EPA spokesperson Julia Valentine.
If the plan was submitted in full last Friday?which was all but officially confirmed?it triggers the start of a 45-d...