FG ‘working out something’ on Volkswagen

With the emission scandal that has trailed auto makers Volkswagen in USA, leading to the stepping aside of its Chief Executive Officer, the Federal Government has said it will state its position on the issue this week.
Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) Dr Joseph Odumodu, in an SMS to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the relevant government agencies were “working out something.’’
He was reacting to questions as to why the Federal Government was silent on the matter and whether the country was not at risk.
He said: “We are at risk and we are working out something, but it involves more than one agency.
“Next week you will be notified of our position, but currently, the standard emission in Nigeria is at the very basic level.
“While Nigeria is at level 2, Europe for example is at level 6,’’ Odumodu said.
NAN recalls that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had discovered that some Volkswagen diesel engine cars on sale in that country had devices that could cheat emission tests.
The EPA’s findings covered 482,000 cars in the U.S. , including VW brands, such as Audi A3, Jetta, Beetle, Golf and Passat.
The German car giant had owned up to the malpractice, admitting that about 11 million of its cars worldwide were fitted with the technology, dubbed “defeat device’’.

Read also: Volkswagen appoints new CEO

Many countries, including South Africa, had reacted to the scandal by carrying out investigations to test the legitimacy of VW’s emissions claims.
Mr Aminu Jalal, the director general, National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), attributed Nigeria’s silence on the scandal to the status of its emissions standards.
Jalal said that the country was still at Euro 2 (the second level of the European emissions standards), while VW cars affected in the scandal cheated on far higher levels.
He said: “We are still at Euro 2. Even if those vehicles that are cheating abroad are imported to Nigeria, it is likely that their emissions would not be violating Euro 2.
“When they cheat on Euro 5, it means their emission levels are in violation of Euro 4 or 3, but Nigeria is currently at Euro 2.
“This is why we can’t say that they have breached our regulations until we carry out our own investigations.’’

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