Volkswagen Could Face $18 Billion Fine Over Emission-Cheating Software

After getting caught cheating on emissions testing by means of software, Volkswagen could face up to $18 billion in fines, reports USA Today. That number is based on the company being assessed the maximum penalty of $37,500 per affected vehicle. That's not the only bad news for Volkswagen, which has halted sales of its 4-cylinder diesel cars; the linked article reports that the violations "could also invite charges of false marketing by regulators, a vehicle recall and payment to car owners, either voluntarily or through lawsuits. Volkswagen advertised the cars under the 'Clean Diesel' moniker. The state of California is also investigating the emissions violations."

Comments

Re:Hang 'em high...

[Salamander]

Yes, there is such a law. 40 CFR 86.1809-10 - Prohibition of defeat devices. So much for the "if it's legal it's wonderful" pseudo-argument.

Re:23% of the company

[Anonymous Coward]

According to the previous article about this, the cars are still LEGAL, they are just nowhere near as clean as they claim. It's not a "clean" or "dirty" question, all cars are dirty to a certain extent.

Uh, no.

During normal driving situations, the controls are turned off, allowing the cars to spew as much as 40 times the pollution allowed under the Clean Air Act, the E.P.A. said.

Re:23% of the company

[Z00L00K]

Then you have misunderstood the EGR. What the EGR do is to recirculate some exhaust lowering the oxygen content in the combustion chamber, which in turn lowers the combustion temperature and result in a lower NOx level. The EGR gases are usually also cooled down before entering the intake.

The downside with a lower combustion chamber temperature is that the engine will provide less power as well, all according to the ideal gas law. To compensate for this the boost pressure through a turbocharger is pretty high - newer engines conforming to the latest emission standards have a higher boost than previous generations - even up to 4 bar (4 atmospheres) boost. (way more than what a gasoline engine have)

On a diesel there's a catalytic converter to take care of some HC that may remain, but the primary objective is that there's a particle filter that catches most particles - where the majority are soot particles. This filter has to be regenerated at regular intervals which is done by injecting some additional diesel into the filter where it's ignited. However since the soot isn't entirely clean there's an accumulation of ash residue that requires a replacement of the filter at regular intervals - usually >= 100000 km.

In order to lower the NOx even more there's also on modern vehicles also an injection of a selective catalytic reagent (SCR), often named AdBlue or Diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) (which is a clear water-based liquid containing urea) into the exhaust system that combines with the NOx and other compounds in the exhaust fumes to produce nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water.