Authorities urge VW to build electric cars in the US

US authorities have asked German carmaker Volkswagen to produce electric vehicles in the US, as a way of making up for its rigging of emission tests.

German newspaper Welt am Sonntag claims the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) 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 emissions limits.

The paper, which gave no source for its report on Sunday, says the EPA is asking VW to produce electric vehicles at its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and to help build a network of charging stations for electric vehicles in the US.

Some of VW’s cars already feature electric or hybrid motors. It is 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 US, 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.

Sales of new, diesel-powered passenger cars have nearly disappeared in the US on the heels of Volkswagen’s diesel emissions cheating scandal, according to US automotive data provider, Wards Auto.

The German carmaker, which was the largest seller of diesel-powered cars, began halting US sales in September after the US EPA said that it used technology to cheat on diesel emission tests.

Last month, carmakers overall reported selling fewer than 225 such passenger cars compared with between 4800 and 9500 a month in the first eight months of 2015, according to WardsAuto.com.