Reuters: VW could face $18B in fines.

Post #404,721 by Another Scott 9/18/15 9:58:55 PM Reply	Reuters: VW could face $18B in fines. Reuters: Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) faces penalties up to $18 billion after being accused of designing software for diesel cars that deceives regulators measuring toxic emissions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday. "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. Volkswagen can face civil penalties of $37,500 for each vehicle not in compliance with federal clean air rules. There are 482,000 four-cylinder VW and Audi diesel cars sold since 2008 involved in the allegations. If each car involved is found to be in noncompliance, the penalty could be $18 billion, an EPA official confirmed on the teleconference. A U.S. Volkswagen spokesman said the company "is cooperating with the investigation; we are unable to comment further at this time." If this wasn't some sort of error, they should be made to pay every cent. Grr. Cheers, Scott.
Post #404,729 by drook 9/19/15 9:54:22 AM Reply	Are diesels even a good idea? I've been hearing for years how Europe has access to "cleaner, more efficient" diesels. Now I wonder if they actually are better. -- Drew
Post #404,731 by scoenye 9/19/15 10:26:23 AM Reply	Rolling back Most of that was due to much lower taxes on diesel fuel compared to gas. Now that taxes are on a more equal footing, and diesel is about as expensive as gasoline, people are going back to buying gas engined vehicles because the cars are less expensive to buy. Diesel engines are more efficient and (low sulphur!) diesel produces lower levels of harmful gases compared to gasoline, but it produces lots of soot (even without coal roller mods...). Filters were then mandated to combat that, but they still emit enough fine particulates to cause problems when an atmospheric inversion is present.
Post #404,732 by Another Scott 9/19/15 10:32:48 AM Reply	TANSTAAFL. Europe had better diesels than the US years sooner because our fuel had too much sulfur in it which wreaked havoc on the magic pumps, injectors and emissions systems. My 2004 TDI has a "PD" engine with each injector having its own built-in pump. Common Rail systems seem to be better in terms of simplicity and lower emissions, but they required low-sulfur fuel. We have only had that since December 2010. (I think VW possibly also didn't want to license the necessary common-rail patents for a while, or something. They have a common rail system now.) AFAIK, diesels sold in the US are as good as European ones now (but they still have an advantage in the array of sizes available, number of car models which offer them, etc.). (At least as I understand it,) Due to the higher compression ratios of diesels, they naturally have more NOx than gas engines. Emissions control systems have to work harder to counteract that. But the higher compression ratios also give you higher efficiency. So, there's a tradeoff. Since smog and ground-level ozone are directly created by NOx, it's a big deal if a diesel car is turning off its emissions controls. VW really, really messed up in doing this. Mercedes and BMW (and Chrysler and ...) diesels aren't sold as magic super MPG machines the way VW pushes theirs, so maybe they didn't feel the pressure to do similar emissions cheating. Or maybe they were smart enough to realize they'd eventually be caught and the risk wasn't worth it. But I hope CARB and EPA are checking them (and everyone else) to make sure they're not fudging their numbers all the same. Cheers, Scott.

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