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France may still ban diesel vehicle sales

Legislators in France are not afraid to bring out the ban hammer when it comes to dirty vehicles. The city of Paris has implemented bans on old clunkers, and the French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, said in 2014 that diesel cars were a "mistake" and that the government would "progressively undo" the error. Now the national government has said it will not rule out banning sales of new diesel vehicles by Renault and Volkswagen if those companies don't answer more questions about their vehicles' emissions. Environment Minister Segolene Royal said last week that France wants more information about the VW diesel defeat device and Renault's engine software. "We will be asking the consumer fraud investigators and prosecutors to communicate any findings that will enable us to establish whether it's necessary to withdraw sales authorizations," Royal said. Royal has been making waves recently at the COP22 meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco and said that Donald Trump's environmental policies will be " absolutely catastrophic" and weaken the US' standing in the world. If the US doesn't want to lead on climate change efforts, she said, "China can take the place of the United States." She has also been involved in a controversy at home over votes that her staff made to allow higher emissions level from vehicles. Related Video: News Source: SpeedluxImage Credit: Fred Tanneau/AFP/Getty Images Government/Legal Green Volkswagen Renault Emissions Diesel Vehicles vw diesel scandal segolene royal

Carmakers say they 'can't meet' Euro 6 emissions targets

UPDATE: A previous version of this story listed Euro 6 requirements in kilograms per kilometer. This was incorrect. The correct unit is grams of NOx per kilometer, or g/km. The story has been edited accordingly. Well, the timing of this is not good. In the midst of Volkswagen's emissions cheating scandal, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) is claiming it won't be able to hit the stringent Euro 6 nitrogen oxide standards currently slated for the end of the decade. Currently, European legislators are set to begin requiring tougher emissions standards by 2017. Standards would be ramped up until 2020, when all new cars sold across the pond would be required to emit just 0.080 kilograms of nitrogen oxide per kilometer. That's too tough for automakers, though. Citing an "EU insider," AutoExpress reports that automakers are asking for conformity factors, which is a fancy way of saying they want easier standards. The automakers are requesting a conformity factor of 2.75 from 2017 to 2020, and a factor of 1.7 in 2020. What that means is that by 2020, new diesels would be allowed to emit 1.7 times the 0.080 g/km standard, or 0.136 g/km. While that might not be all that bad, if automakers were granted the 2.75 conformity factor, new diesels from 2017 wouldn't even be eligible for today's Euro 5 classification, AE claims. Far and away the most astonishing thing here though, is the way the ACEA is viewing the VW diesel scandal. According to AE, the EU insider said automakers across the pond think there's "a US conspiracy against European diesels." Yep. Volkswagen installed software on millions of vehicles to cheat emissions tests and it's somehow an American conspiracy. That makes loads of sense. To put it simply, automakers don't think their diesels will be able to hit European standards, so they're asking for a break. Whether European legislators go along with it remains to be seen. Related Video:

Anti-union group files lawsuit against VW and UAW

The fight for unionization at Volkswagen's Chattanooga, TN, factory isn't letting up. Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board decided to allow anti-United Auto Workers employees at the plant the right to defend voting down the measure. Now, a group called the National Right to Work Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of five workers against VW and the UAW for allegedly working together to organize.
The group says in a release that it wants "to block further collusion between the company and the United Auto Workers." It alleges that VW forced workers to attend "mandatory pro-union meetings" and prevented managers from opposing. In a rebuttal on its website, the UAW called the claims "baseless" and said its actions were entirely legal.
One possible problem faces the carmaker in regards to the lawsuit. According to the Detroit Free Press, a recent US Court of Appeals ruling found that neutrality agreements like the one the business had with the UAW could be illegal if the company provided "things of value" to the union. The newspaper also claims that VW held a mandatory employee meeting concerning the election, but workers were free to leave during the UAW's presentation.