Remember “How to Lie with Statistics”. The 40 times is meant to shock. If the standard was at a small amount and then the standard was revised to reduce by to a fiftieth of that amount over three years, a vehicle that was better than the standard could easily be 40 times dirtier if the standard was drastically changed.
This huge reduction is why the scam took place.
As you dig down into the specs, that 10-40x becomes very ‘fuzzy’.
Is that 40x the CARB spec?
The US fed spec has a large allowable tolerance.
It is speculated that the suspect TDI’s, would pass the Euro specification???
A lot of testing and a whole lot of lawyering to sort it out.