It's interesting to note that most of the smaller offenders listed were required to destroy or ship their offending vehicles and engines back out of the country; 50 here, a hundred there and a handful elsewhere. Nothing of this sort is indicated about the Piaggio models. I wonder if they entered the distribution channel. Disposing of over 5,000 vehicles would be a costly endeavor no matter how you slice it.
As far as skimping on catalytic converters goes, there is a lot of precious and semi-precious metal to be saved by building non-conforming catalytic converters. I wonder if this traces back to a singe source, or several different producers, of converters.
Here's the EPA finding that is common to the catalytic converters of several of the offending vehicles: "Specifically, the ratio of the precious metals in the tested samples differed significantly from the certified design." as well as "..., and the loading of precious metals was lower than the certified design."
And here's the EPA's Required Remediation: "[Manufacturer/Importer], must provide the EPA with a report and documentation showing that the Subject Engines have been exported to countries other than Canada and Mexico."
EDIT
It turns out that the 5,009 Piaggio motorcycles found to be offending were models under 50cc and built for model years 2013-2018. All of them contained a resonator hole in the exhaust system that did not appear in the certified design, about half of them had non-comfirming catalytic convertors and about half of them were not properly labeled. It looks as though all of them were allowed to be sold and are on the road today, presumably putting out non-conforming levels of emissions. A fine in the range of $47.91 per vehicle seems a relative bargain. Volkswagen should have had it so easy!
