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The dieselgate scandal just got bigger after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received confirmation from Volkswagen and Audi officials that its 3.0 litre TDI V6 engine contains a defeat device designed to foil emissions tests. The automaker had initially denied this allegation after it was served a second notice of violation (NOV) of the Clean Air Act (CAA) at the start of the month.

This revelation has now led the EPA to expand its investigation to include every Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi model sold in the US fitted with the 3.0 litre TDI V6 engine from model years 2009 through 2016 – amounting to around 85,000 vehicles. For Audi, the expansion affects only the 2009 to 2012 Q7 SUV, with other marques expected to reveal their affected models soon.

In its earlier statement, the EPA listed the 2014 Volkswagen Touareg, 2015 Porsche Cayenne, along with the Audi A6 quattro, A7 quattro, A8, A8L, and Q5 from model year 2016, as the models affected. The NOV covered roughly 10,000 diesel passenger cars previously sold in the US since model year 2014. However, it is yet unknown how many 2016 vehicles are affected.

Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen have already issued a stop-sale order for all models affected in the US as a result of this expansion. According to the EPA and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), regulators will continue to investigate and will take all appropriate action.

Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal also includes the company’s smaller capacity diesel mills (1.2 TDI, 1.6 TDI, 2.0 TDI), where an estimated 11 million cars worldwide are said to feature defeat devices that allows it to activate pollution-control equipment, limiting nitrogen oxide emissions to allowed levels. During real-world driving, the controls are inactive, making the vehicles pollute more than certified to be.

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