53 million diesel cars detected with suspicious NOx emissions

by time news

almost eight years after the “Dieselgate” scandal broke, its echoes continue to reverberate in the European automotive industry. The introduction of a stricter gas measurement system, going from the NEDC approval protocol to the current WLTP, or the modifications of the ITV to obtain the data through the switchboard are just two examples of the many changes unleashed since 2015.

The events of “Dieselgate” made the European Commission focus on a family of gases that are especially harmful to humans, nitrogen oxides (NOx). These, according to the International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT), present in air pollution on a local scale, were largely responsible for 35,400 premature deaths in 2015, a share of 14% of the total.

Although the main responsible of the emissions scandal It was the Volkswagen Group – it is estimated that it affected some 11 million of its vehicles and that its cost has exceeded 32,000 million euros -, the environmental association points out that other manufacturers also present “suspicious levels” of NOx, which could indicate that around 53 million diesel cars sold in Europe between 2009 and 2019.

These correspond to the Euro 5 and Euro 6 pollution regulations. The latter came into force in 2014 and was in force until 2019, the year that coincided with the arrival of its Euro 6d update and the change of measurement tests to the WLTP cycle.

As a result of “Dieselgate” manufacturers they had to prove that their vehicles did not have a device to falsify the data on harmful gases. The data to which ICCT has had access involved some 700,000 different measurements in five countries. According to the organization, 75% of the average values ​​of the diesel propellants exceeded the “extreme levels”” or three times the figure set by the corresponding Euro regulations.

“It’s hard to argue with what is a huge amount of data scrutinized and evidence collected from multiple sources. They all point in the same direction and present a strong evidence base for authorities to investigate and take remedial action to address the health risks posed by diesel cars on our roads,” says Peter Mock, Managing Director for Europe of the ICCT.

in a sentence published in December 2020the Court of Justice of the European Union clarified that “only immediate risks of harm that create a concrete danger while driving the vehicle can justify the use of a defeat device.”

This means that some of the mechanisms that manufacturers have used, alleging that they were necessary to guarantee the longevity of their engines, could now be considered illegal by community jurisprudence. However, one of the problems with this classification is that many of the models cited by the ICCT report, such as the old Renault Laguna, Ford Focus, Dacia Duster, Volvo S60, Fiat 500X or BMW 116d are no longer in production.

Besides the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has recognized last Tuesday that those affected by the “Dieselgate” have the right to receive compensation. In the ruling, the European court recognizes that community regulations prohibit devices that hide the real emission levels of vehicles and describes the actions of manufacturers who did so as “negligence”. However, the sentence does not determine the amount of compensation and indicates that this task corresponds to the different Member States.

The estimates of the environmental organization is that 19.1 million vehicles with “suspicious” emissions – which exceed the emission threshold set by law – and 13 million with “extreme” levels continue to circulate on the roads of Europe.

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