It’s been nearly three years since Volkswagen’s dieselgate scandal was exposed and now the company has finally received approval for a fix involving 3.0-liter TDI engines from Generation 1.2.
Recently approved by Canadian regulators as well as the California Air Resources Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the fix will allow Volkswagen and its affiliated brands to finally make models equipped with the engine compliant with emission standards. The fix is applicable to approximately 8,800 vehicles in North America and it marks the final chapter in the repair process as the company now offers a “specific solution for all its diesel engines in the United States and Canada.”
According to a letter sent out by the EPA (PDF), it appears the last remaining vehicles are diesel-powered versions of the Audi Q7 and Volkswagen Touareg from the 2011 and 2012 model years.
Once the vehicles are fixed, they will likely be on the road again as the California Air Resources Board noted “For these vehicles, the only remaining action is for VW and Audi to submit their resale plans for modified vehicles owners have returned.”
While this is a positive development, CARB Chair Mary D. Nichols said “Mitigation of the harm from these vehicles will take years.” However, she said the process of solving the dieselgate problem is an “excellent example of what can be accomplished when state and federal agencies actually work together.”
While the final fix has been approved, there are shocking number of models equipped with the 3.0-liter TDI engine that haven’t received repairs. Audi has offered a fix for the “first four engine generations of the 3.0 TDI” since November of last year, but only 62 percent of the vehicles in the United States have been repaired. The numbers are even worse in Canada – where the fixes arrived a month and a half later – as the country’s completion rate is around 42 percent.
The various versions of the 3.0-liter TDI engine were offered in an assortment of different models over the years. In Audi’s case, the engine was available in North America between the 2009 and 2016 model years in vehicles such as the A6, A7, A8, Q5 and Q7.
