The head of Volkswagen Group plans to present possible solutions to the company’s emissions cheating scandal when he meets with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week.
Speaking at the Detroit International Auto Show, Volkswagen chief Matthias Mueller said he hopes his meeting Wednesday with EPA head Gina McCarthy will result in a final solution to the controversy.
{mosads}“It is my point of view, I tell you we are working together with the EPA and also with the [California regulators] for three months, and from our point of view we did huge progress,” Mueller said, according to The Associated Press. “And now we will talk to Ms. McCarthy and we’ll see how the reaction will be.”
Volkswagen called for the meeting with McCarthy.
The Germany-based automaker might have to recall the 600,000 diesel-powered cars that the EPA found last year had been programmed to cheat on air pollution tests.
The company admitted that the cars emitted up to 40 times more nitrogen oxides than allowed, but internal software reduced the emissions for regulators’ tests. About 11 million cars worldwide have the same software feature.
McCarthy said last week that months of negotiations between the EPA and Volkswagen yielded no result that the federal government could accept.
That’s what drove the Justice Department to sue the company last week for more than $20 billion in Clean Air Act fines.