EPA in talks with Volvo over faulty emissions part in trucks

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working with Volvo to address a faulty part that could lead to increased, illegal emissions in its commercial trucks.

EPA along with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has been meeting with the manufacturer for weeks to discuss ways to address the faulty emissions control component in the vehicles, according to officials.

“EPA is aware of the situation involving excess emissions from Volvo heavy-duty trucks. Over the last few weeks, EPA and the California Air Resources Board have been communicating with Volvo about the problem and are now continuing to meet with the company to develop plans to quickly address this situation,” an EPA spokesperson told The Hill in a statement Wednesday.

Bloomberg first reported on EPA’s involvement.

Volvo announced Tuesday that it had discovered a faulty part as it began alerting authorities in the U.S. and Europe. It added in a statement that the cost to fix the issue “could be material.”

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The problem stems from a malfunctioning catalyst converter that degraded faster than expected in the trucks and was manufactured by an outside company. Officials fear the faulty piece could lead to higher emissions releases than allowed in a number of markets where Volvos are sold.

The Volvo Group, a Swedish company, delivered nearly 82,000 trucks to Europe and North America in the first six months of 2018, according to numbers compiled by CNBC.

A company spokesman told Reuters there were no plans yet to recall any of the trucks and authorities had not asked the company to do so.

The news comes as a number of European automakers in recent years have been caught failing to hit emissions standards. The most notable incident was a 2015 lawsuit brought against Germany car company Volkswagen by the EPA after the company admitted to installing an emissions cheating device on certain models of its diesel cars. The device was intended to allow the company to pass smog tests without cutting emissions as low as mandated under U.S. law.

Just Tuesday, Germany slapped the carmaker with a roughly $926 million fine related to findings at its sister company Audi.

There is no evidence that Volvo’s faulty part was part of an attempt to cheat emissions rules.