On Friday, September 25, the U.S. EPA released a letter sent to Volkswagen AG, Audi AG, and Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. asserting that the companies were in violation of the Clean Air Act for model years 2009-2015 for certain four-cylinder Audi and Volkswagen diesel cars.  The allegations in the letter state that the cars were equipped with software that circumvented the EPA’s emission standards.  The software, known as a “defeat device” was designed to turn off emission controls under normal operating condition, and to turn them on when the car is undergoing emissions test.  The software allowed the cars to emit up to 40 times of the amount of NOx emissions then the U.S. EPA standards allow.  It is widely anticipated that the U.S. EPA will be closely scrutinizing other auto manufacturers to ensure compliance with the Clean Air Act NOx emission standards.

A copy of the Notice of Violation can be found here.

For more information, please contact Phillip Hoover.