Calif. rejects VW’s plan to fix 3-liter diesel cars

California’s air-quality authority again rejected Volkswagen Group’s plan to recall and repair 16,000 of its polluting vehicles with 6-cylinder 3-liter “clean diesel” engines in the state on Wednesday, saying the proposal is too vague.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has been acting in concert with the California Air Resources Board, issued its own statement, saying it also finds VW’s plan to be incomplete.

There are believed to be about 85,000 VW vehicles with 3-liter diesel engines in the U.S. from the 2009 to 2016 model years.

The California board’s decision complicates VW’s situation as it struggles to come up with a costeffective solution to repair its larger diesel vehicles. The latest case is the next step after the agreement announced last month that will fix or buy back cars with 4-cylinder, 2-liter diesel engines and compensate owners.

VW issued a statement pledging that it will “continue to work closely with” the board and EPA to come up with a plan to resolve the issue.

The rejection affects Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche vehicles — all part of VW Group — with the larger diesel engines.

“VW’s and Audi’s submissions are incomplete, substantially deficient and fall far short of meeting the legal requirements to return those vehicles to the claimed certified configuration,” says the letter sent Wednesday to VW Group.

The board says Audi admitted in November that its 3-liter diesels have previously undisclosed technology installed that act as “defeat devices,” circumventing the emissions control systems.