page_title: Volkswagen emissions scandal
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Volkswagen emissions scandal / Consequences / Legal and financial repercussions / Government actions / United States
caption_attribution_description: Recalled VW diesel cars stored at Gary Chicago Airport
context_page_description: The Volkswagen emissions scandal, also known as Dieselgate or Emissionsgate, began in September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Volkswagen Group. The agency had found that Volkswagen had intentionally programmed turbocharged direct injection diesel engines to activate their emissions controls only during laboratory emissions testing which caused the vehicles' NO
  x output to meet US standards during regulatory testing, but emit up to 40 times more NO
  x in real-world driving. Volkswagen deployed this software in about 11 million cars worldwide, including 500,000 in the United States, in model years 2009 through 2015.
  In 2014, the California Air Resources Board had commissioned a study on emissions discrepancies between European and US models of vehicles from the International Council on Clean Transportation, summing up the data from three different sources on 15 vehicles. Among them was a group of five scientists at West Virginia University, who detected additional emissions during live road tests on two out of three diesel cars. ICCT also purchased data from two other sources.
context_section_description: VW suspended sales of TDI-equipped cars in the US on 20 September 2015. On 21 September 2015 the EPA announced that should the allegations be proven, Volkswagen Group could face fines of up to US$37,500 per vehicle (about US$18 billion in total). In addition to possible civil fines, the United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division were doing a criminal probe of Volkswagen AG's conduct. 22 September 2015 The United States House Energy Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations announced that it would hold a hearing into the Volkswagen scandal while New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said that his investigation was already underway. As of 29 October 2015, over 25 other states' attorneys general, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Detroit, were involved in similar investigations. On 12 November 2015, the FBI confirmed to engineering magazine Ingeniøren that it had an ongoing investigation, after previous unconfirmed reports.
  As of 6 October 2015, the EPA decided to broaden its investigations onto 28 diesel-powered models made by BMW, Chrysler, General Motors, Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz. The agency would initially focus on one used vehicle of each model, and widen the probe if it encountered suspicious data. The EPA has described the hidden Volkswagen pollution as "knowing endangerment". In May 2016, the owners of Mercedes-Benz confirmed that the US Justice Department asked Daimler AG to run an internal investigation into its diesel emissions testing, as well.
  On 4 January 2016, the Justice Department, on behalf of the EPA, brought suit against Volkswagen in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit. The complaint, seeking up to $46 billion in penalties for Clean Air Act violations, alleged that Volkswagen equipped certain 2.0 and 3.0-litre diesel-engine vehicles with emissions cheating software, causing NO
   x  pollution to exceed EPA's standards during normal driving conditions. It further claimed that Volkswagen entities provided misleading information and that material omissions impeded and obstructed ""efforts to learn the truth about the (excess) emissions". while "so far recall discussions with the company have not produced an acceptable way forward". On 9 January 2016, US officials criticized Volkswagen for citing German law in order to withhold documents from a group of states investigating the company's actions. Schneiderman also complained over Volkswagen's slowness in producing documents from its US files, claiming the company "has sought to delay responses until it completes its 'independent investigation' several months from now".
  On 12 January 2016, US regulators rejected Volkswagen's recall plans for its affected 2.0-litre diesel engines, submitted to CARB in December 2015, claiming that these "do not adequately address overall impacts on vehicle performance, emissions and safety". Volkswagen confirmed that its discussions with CARB will continue, and said that the company is working on bringing "a package together which satisfies our customers first and foremost and then also the regulators". The states of Arizona, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Texas, as well as Harris County, Texas, all filed separate lawsuits seeking restitution from VW. The company also faces investigations by 48 United States state attorneys (as of February 2016).
  On 29 March 2016, Volkswagen was additionally sued by the United States Federal Trade Commission for false advertising due to fraudulent claims made by the company in its promotion of the affected models, which touted the "environmental and economic advantages" of diesel engines and contained claims of low emissions output. The suit was consolidated into existing litigation over the matter in San Francisco, which would allow the FTC to participate in global settlements over the matter.
  The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on 1 June 2020 that Volkswagen was liable for further legal damage lawsuits brought by state and local governments in the emissions fraud. The unanimous ruli
caption: Recalled Volkswagens stored at Gary/Chicago International Airport
exif: {"Image Make": "samsung", "Image Model": "SAMSUNG-SM-J327A", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "J327AUCS2ARA1", "Image DateTime": "2018:03:28 10:14:55", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "222", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[41, 37, 54]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[87, 25, 27]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "1", "GPS GPSAltitude": "0", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[15, 14, 49]", "GPS GPSDate": "2018:03:28", "Image GPSInfo": "890", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "512", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "384", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1226", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "20038", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1351", "EXIF FNumber": "19/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "40", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2018:03:28 10:14:55", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2018:03:28 10:14:55", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "52/5", "EXIF ApertureValue": "37/20", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "423/50", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "37/20", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "5/2", "EXIF SubSecTime": "0491", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "0491", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "0491", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2576", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1932", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "860", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "30", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "M05LSJA00NM M05LSKB03NA"}