Volvo Trucks Linked with Faulty, High-Emission Component

Certain heavy-duty Volvo trucks have been linked with a faulty component capable of releasing extremely high amounts of pollution into the environment—at levels that may exceed federal regulations.

Right now, regulators from both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) are working with Volvo to address the semi truck emissions problem.

Semi Truck Emissions

Commercial Volvo trucks are sold by the Swedish automaker in both Europe and North America. In the year 2017 alone, Volvo sold over 51,000 of these Volvo trucks in North America, and more than 115,000 in Europe, according to a Reuters report.

On Oc. 16, 2018, Volvo announced that some of its commercial trucks were equipped with a faulty component capable of causing high semi truck emissions and that it was already working with authorities in the U.S. and in Europe to remedy the problem.

The faulty component in question is a catalytic converter. According to Volvo’s statement, the catalytic converter component is degrading much faster than the company expected. This causes the release of excessive nitrogen oxide.

“EPA is aware of the situation involving excess emissions from Volvo heavy-duty trucks. Over the last few weeks, EPA and the California Air Resources Board have been communicating with Volvo about the problem and are now continuing to meet with the company to develop plans to quickly address this situation,” said the EPA in a statement to The Hill.

So far, there has been no recall of Volvo trucks over this faulty component, and a company spokesperson told Reuters there are no plans as of yet for such a recall. Although Volvo has not yet said how much it would cost to fix the issue, the company has said that the cost “could be material.”

Failing to hit emissions standards has been a serious issue for several European automakers recently. In 2015, an emissions lawsuit was filed against the German automaker Volkswagen by the EPA after the company admitted to using emissions cheating devices in some of its diesel cars. These devices were used to allow cars to pass emissions testing by sensing when the vehicles are in a testing environment and using a legal amount of emissions, but when in a normal driving environment, releasing emissions much higher than regulations allow.

No evidence suggests that the faulty component in these heavy-duty Volvo trucks is part of an effort to cheat emissions testing, and the component is not actually made by Volvo. The automaker is working with regulators to assess and fix the problem quickly.

Volvo Trucks Emissions Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you are an independent trucker or a trucking company, and you own one of these Volvo trucks affected by a faulty catalytic converter, leading to high semi truck emissions, you may be able to participate in this class action lawsuit investigation.

Join a Free Volvo Truck Emissions Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you or your company owns Volvo heavy-duty trucks that include this faulty component that is causing illegal amounts of emissions to be released, you may be entitled to compensation.

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