Why Did Volkswagen Only Rig Emissions Systems On Diesel Cars?

Volvo has admitted to rigging the emissions control techniques on 11 million diesel powered cars over the last seven many years, but those only symbolize a fraction of all the automobiles produced by VW during that period. Why did the carmaker only choose to tinker using its diesel vehicles instead of the bigger number of gasoline cars? And just how do we know VW did not mess with these vehicles?
They are questions that Consumerist readers Dick has been wondering because the VW emissions scandal very first broke on Sept. eighteen.
“In other words, all of us already know that they cheat, ” he says. “Why can we seem to think they be unfaithful only with their diesels? ”
First of all, the Environmental Protection Company, the agency that required action against VW, states it isn’t excluding the chance that unleaded vehicles could be skirting emission standards.
“Computer handles on modern vehicles may be used for efficient, effective release control - but they can also be utilized to only look like effective release control, ” the company said in a statement in order to Consumerist. “This is true with regard to both diesel and fuel engines. EPA will be critiquing our compliance protocols because of the VW case. ”
The agency, which formerly announced it would overhaul emissions tests to catch beat devices - software accustomed to trick emissions tests in order to evade standards for certain contaminants - says the new conformity processes will apply to each diesel and unleaded gasoline engines.
So why has most of the focus surrounding the NOVA scandal been squarely positioned on diesel engine cars?
Mike Fisher, director of car testing for our colleagues in Consumer Reports, hypothesizes it could be the fact that diesel cars have generally created much more pollutants than unleaded propane engines, and controlling all those emissions can be costly regarding automakers.
Historically, that’s frequently been the trade-off for selecting a diesel vehicle: greater fuel efficiency but more toxins.
Diesel vehicles burn energy more efficiently because their period produces less heat, which means these vehicles often get much better gas mileage, Fisher says.
Normally, diesel-fueled cars are 33% more fuel-efficient than gas when it comes to mileage, according to the Oughout. S. Department of Energy.
However the on the flip side, Fisher says, these types of vehicles release more “nasty” pollutants, such as NOx (nitrogen oxides), into the air compared to their unleaded gasoline alternatives. In fact , the EPA discovered the affected VW diesel-engine vehicles produce 40-times the actual allowable EPA standard intended for NOx.
“It’s more difficult to create diesel vehicles that fulfill emissions standards than it really is for unleaded cars, ” he says of aftermarket replacement treatments needed to reduce impurities. “Not only is it more challenging, but it’s more costly when it comes to treatments. So there might be a lot more incentive to defeat the device if you can build a [diesel] car at a lower cost. ”
Omitting a system that reduces NOx concentration in diesel-powered exhaust could have saved almost $300/car, Fisher theorizes, depending on his knowledge of the VOLKSWAGEN case.
Since every other producer has put in that kind of system, he says it is possible that the VW vehicles would not have passed emissions tests without defeat gadgets installed.
Still, Fisher claims that while it’s more possible that diesel vehicles might have more use for a eliminate device, it’s possible which some gasoline-powered vehicles consist of similar emission-skirting software.

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