VW CEO To Meet With EPA Chief On U.S. Emissions Fix

Volkswagen officials this week hope to iron out an agreement with federal regulators regarding a recall of cars affected by the company's diesel emissions scandal.

The Associated Press reports that VW CEO Matthias Mueller is scheduled to meet with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy on Wednesday about how to fix the problem in more than 500,000 U.S. vehicles.

Mueller took over for CEO Martin Winterkorn, who resigned in September after the EPA announced that VW installed software to manipulate diesel emissions levels during official testing.

German authorities last month approved VW's proposal to fix the issue in the European Union, where 8.5 million of the 11 million vehicles implicated in the scandal are located.

The EU process would require less than an hour of maintenance, but the AP said that a fix in the U.S. would likely be much more complicated — potentially including exhaust system overhauls or steps to eliminate harmful nitrogen oxide emissions.

Months of talks between the company and EPA have yet to produce an agreement, but both sides said that they are optimistic heading into Wednesday's meeting.

"We are working together with the EPA and also with the [California Air Resources Board] for three months, and from our point of view we did huge progress," Mueller said.

Federal prosecutors last week sued VW over the scandal on behalf of the EPA. The company could face billions in penalties, and a criminal probe and other lawsuits remain pending.