US asks VW to produce electric cars

FRANKFURT - Reuters

An electric Volkswagen car is pictured at charging station in Berlin. REUTERS Photo

U.S. authorities have asked the German carmaker Volkswagen to produce electric vehicles in the United States as a way of making up for its rigging of emission tests, the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag reported. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently in talks with Volkswagen with the aim of agreeing on a fix for nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles that emit up to 40 times legal pollution limits. 

The paper, which gave no source for its report, said the EPA was asking VW to produce electric vehicles at its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and to help build a network of charging stations for electric vehicles in the United States.  Some of Volkswagen’s cars already feature electric or hybrid motors. It was not clear from Welt am Sonntag’s report whether the EPA was asking VW to produce new models or existing ones. 

Five months after the emissions scandal in the U.S., the carmaker has yet to come up with a technical fix for almost 600,000 diesel cars.