Tesla CEO Musk suggests California to push Volkswagen to electric cars

Tesla Motors Chief Executive Elon Musk and others have asked California regulators to push Volkswagen AG towards electric cars. The regulators have been suggested to direct Volkswagen confining to zero-emission vehicles. The fixing of rigging software involves more money and could lead to further technical snag, they cautioned the California regulators. However, Volkswagen is also planning to launch a new high range electric vehicle.

Along with Musk, Jeff Skoll, internet entrepreneur and former eBay Inc, and Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, Hal Harvey, CEO of Energy Innovation, and 41 others including clean energy executives and environmental activists have signed the letter sent to the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

Elon Musk and other representatives from automobile industry on 17 December wrote a letter to Mary Nichols, Head of the California Air Resources Board. Gas and diesel engine-powered vehicles cause emissions to some extent. Electric vehicles and other technologies can cause no emission of pollutants, they said in the letter, as reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

German auto major Volkswagen AG has been facing turbulent situation globally after its emission results rigging software came to light in last August. The automobile industry leaders and experts opine that fixing the rigging software involves cumbersome exercise and consumer money.

"A giant sum of money will be wasted in attempting to fix cars that can't all be fixed and where the fix may be worse than the problem if the cars are crushed well before the end of their useful lives. Instead, direct VW to accelerate greatly its rollout of zero-emission vehicles, which by their very nature, have zero emissions and thus present zero opportunities for cheating and also do not require any enforcement dollars to verify," reads the letter published by Newsweek.

Volkswagen had already admitted the installation of cheating software on about 500,000 diesel-powered cars sold in the US alone since 2008. These vehicles emit pollutant carbons more than the allowed by the US government. Volkswagen in October announced that it would roll out a new Phaeton vehicle, which will be an electric vehicle with a range of over 186 miles.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen has released a teaser image of its electric car to be launched in January at CES 2016 in Las Vegas. The German auto major claims that it will be more affordable and long-range electric vehicle, as published by The Detroit News.

A spokesperson at CARB said: "Our focus has and will continue to be cleaning the air and advancing the cleanest vehicle and fuel technologies."

The letter further endorses the arguments made by Yadigaroglu, Tesla investor managing principal at Capricon Investment Group. Yadigaroglu suggested the regulator that Volkswagen should be ordered to make electric vehicles as punishment for its cheating customers and violating on the US emission rules.