Volkswagen better come up with a resolution.
On Thursday, a federal judge gave the embattled automaker and regulators just less than a month's deadline to present a detailed plan about how it's going to bring nearly 600,000 compromised diesel vehicles into compliance with U.S. emissions standards, as reported by CBS News.
U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer demanded to have the specifics of the timing of the massive fix and also details about any kind of planned payments to affected owners from VW's emissions scandal by April 21, giving the automaker exactly 28 days to come up with a blueprint.
"I would hope by the 21st that as many astounding issues as possible will be wrapped up," Breyer said, according to CBS.
The encouraging news is CBS is reporting that Breyer said ex-FBI director Robert Mueller informed him that VW, the Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and lawyers representing class-action lawsuits for car owners have made progress, so a resolution should be expected next month.
If one is not reached, though, then Breyer could put VW on trial this summer — a scenario the automaker will want to avoid.
This deadline comes two months after the EPA and CARB rejected the automaker's proposal for how to fix the nearly 600,000 compromised vehicles in the U.S., saying at the time that the auto company's plans "contain gaps and lack sufficient detail."
"The descriptions of proposed repairs lack enough information for a technical evaluation and the proposals do not adequately address overall impacts on vehicle performance, emissions and safety," the agencies said in a joint statement in January.
The EPA added: "EPA agrees with CARB that Volkswagen has not submitted an approvable recall plan to bring the vehicles into compliance and reduce pollution. EPA has conveyed this to the company previously."
Making matters tougher is that following the deadline announcement Thursday, Volkswagen and Porsche announced a worldwide recall for about 800,000 Touareg and Cayenne SUVs due to a potential problem with their pedal systems. The recall affects 391,000 Touareg models and over 409,000 Cayennes from 2011-16, as also reported by CBS.
Taking care of this recall while coming up with a plan to bring about 600,000 vehicles into emissions compliance is not an enviable position to be in, to say the least.
