The U.S. government has issued an usual request to German carmaker Volkswagen: Make your electric vehicles in the U.S., and maybe we’ll forgive you for the whole emissions-cheating thing. Maybe.
The German newspaper Die Welt reports that the U.S. EPA has asked VW to begin producing EVs at the company’s plant in Chattanooga, Tenn. It has also requested that VW help build charging stations for those electric vehicles across the U.S., which currently has only 12,300 public charging stations.
The request comes after it was discovered last year that Volkswagen vehicles were installed with software that activated emissions controls only during testing. Nearly 600,000 VW diesel vehicles sold in the U.S. and 11 million sold worldwide were installed with the software, which allowed them emit up to 40 times more nitrogen oxide pollution than is permitted under U.S. rules. The company subsequently recalled 500,000 VW and Audi vehicles in the U.S..
The EPA’s request has not been confirmed by Volkswagen. “Talks with the EPA are ongoing and we are not commenting on the contents and state of the negotiations,” a spokesman told Reuters.
