Accusé de tricherie Volkswagen est menacé de sanctions aux Etats-Unis
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/automobile/article/2015/09/20/accuse-de-tricherie-volkswagen-est-menace-de-sanctions-financieres-aux-etats
Les Etats-Unis et l’Etat de Californie accusent Volkswagen (VW) d’avoir délibérément contourné les règles en vigueur en matière de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique. L’Agence fédérale de protection de l’environnement (EPA) affirme que VW a équipé ses modèles diesel Volkswagen et Audi des années 2009 à 2015 d’un logiciel permettant de contourner les tests d’émission de certains polluants atmosphériques.
Ce petit logiciel espion enclenchait – a priori à l’insu des conducteurs – un mécanisme interne de limitation des gaz polluants permettant au véhicule de passer le test sans encombres et de se voir décerner un certificat de bonne conduite écologique. Toutefois, une fois le test fini, le mécanisme anti-pollution se désactivait et le véhicule libérait alors dans l’atmosphère davantage de gaz polluants et notamment du dioxyde d’azote, lié à de graves maladies respiratoires dont l’asthme.
La notification de non-respect de la réglementation Notification of Violation (NOV) par l’EPA
▻http://www3.epa.gov/otaq/cert/documents/vw-nov-caa-09-18-15.pdf
Each vehicle identified by the table below has AECDs that were not described in the application for the COC that purportedly covers the vehicle. Specifically, VW manufactured and installed software in the electronic control module (ECM) of these vehicles that sensed when the vehicle was being tested for compliance with EPA emission standards. For ease of reference, the EPA is calling this the #switch. The “switch” senses whether the vehicle is being test or not based on various inputs including the position of the steering wheel, vehicle speed, the duration of engine’s operation, and barometric pressure. These inputs precisely track the parameters of the federal test procedure used for emission testing for EPA certification purposes. During EPA emission testing, the vehicles’ ECM ran software which produced compliant emission results under an ECM calibration that VW referred to as the “dyno calibration” (referring to the equipment used in emissions testing, called dynamometer). At all other times during normal vehicle operation, the “switch” was activated and the vehicle ECM software ran a separate “road calibration” which reduced the effectiveness of the emission control system (specifically the selective catalytic reduction of the lean NOx trap). As a result, emissions of NOx increased by a factor of 10 to 40 times above the EPA compliant levels, depending on the type of drive cycle (e.g. city, highway).
Dans le communiqué de presse
09/18/2015 : EPA, California Notify Volkswagen of Clean Air Act Violations
▻http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/dfc8e33b5ab162b985257ec40057813b!opendocument
The allegations cover roughly 482,000 diesel passenger cars sold in the United States since 2008.
Affected diesel models include:
• Jetta (Model Years 2009 – 2015)
• Beetle (Model Years 2009 – 2015)
• Audi A3 (Model Years 2009 – 2015)
• Golf (Model Years 2009 – 2015)
• Passat (Model Years 2014-2015)
