EPA wants VW to make electric cars in Chattanooga, report says

Press browse the VW booth before Volkswagen unveiled a new hybrid Jetta and electric concept vehicle, the "Bugstger," at the COBO Center during the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, in this file photo.
Press browse the VW booth before Volkswagen unveiled a new hybrid Jetta and electric concept vehicle, the "Bugstger," at the COBO Center during the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, in this file photo.

U.S. authorities have asked Volkswagen to produce electric vehicles in the company's Chattanooga plant 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, according to Reuters.

The paper, which gave no source for its report, said the EPA was asking VW to produce electric vehicles at its plant in Chattanooga 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 broke in the United States, Europe's leading carmaker has yet to come up with a technical fix for almost 600,000 diesel cars, and is facing a growing number of legal claims.

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