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US Asks VW For Electric Cars (news.com.au)

Posted by BeauHD on from the forget-about-it dept.

US authorities have asked the German carmaker Volkswagen to produce electric vehicles in the United States as a way of making up for its rigging of emission tests. German newspaper Welt am Sonntag claims the US Environmental Protection Agency is currently in talks with Volkswagen with the aim of agreeing on a fix for nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles that emit up to 40 times legal pollution limits. The paper, which gave no source for its report on Sunday, said the EPA was asking VW to produce electric vehicles at its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and to help build a network of charging stations for electric vehicles in the United States.

4 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. This is good because of network nature by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is a very good solution. Rather than just try to slap VW with a fine that they'd shrug off, this would use the resources to help push the entire car market into a better environmental situation and one that is less dependent on fossil fuels as a whole. Electric cars are a technology which works better when there are more electric cars and more charging stations. This is essentially a networking effect. So the resulting push by having another major manufacturer make more electric cars will be substantially more positive than simply fining them.

    1. Re:This is good because of network nature by haruchai · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When you break the law and get caught, the gov't gets to tell you a lot of things you can & can't do.

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      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    2. Re: This is good because of network nature by Christian+Smith · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm good with VW paying the fine, just as I had to do when I broke the speeding & stop light laws.

      ... Of course VW could turn this to their advantage and into a win - making me think of how the record companies instance on DRM helped make iTunes a dominant player in the downloadable music market (maybe this is not the right analogy, but this is the thought that pops into my mind).

      You must be new here. We explain computer issues with car analogies, not the other way round.

  2. Only electric in test mode by dfn5 · · Score: 5, Funny

    As it turns out, the new VW electric cars will only be electric in test mode.

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