Daimlergate? Mercedes is again confronted with problems of compliance with emissions. KBA, Germany’s Federal Transportation Authority, suspects that Mercedes installed software to rig the emissions of its vehicles.
The newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported on April 14, 2019, that Daimler was under investigation by the German auto agency KBA. The car group is suspected of having used a device to fraud tests of its GLK SUV.
KBA tests have shown that cars only meet emissions standards when “a particular function is activated”. 60,000 copies of the Mercedes GLK 220 CDI (photo), manufactured between 2012 and 2015, would be affected.
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This is not the first time a German manufacturer is accused of emissions manipulation. The Dieselgate scandal started in 2015 when the compatriot group Volkswagen acknowledged having equipped his vehicles with a special-purpose system designed to help its cars fraud tests and meet US emission standards.
“We are cooperating fully with the KBA and we are reviewing the facts,” Daimler said in a statement. “The accusations that we want to hide something are incorrect,” officials of the German manufacturer said. Like the Volkswagen scandal, the software in question reduces harmful emissions (only) during certification tests.
Following KBA investigations of previous years, Daimler has reached an agreement with the authorities for similar software charges for a “software update” to be applied to a total of 3 million vehicles globally.
In 2018, the German authority had already ordered the Daimler group to recall 700,000 vehicles worldwide, including 280,000 in Germany, for the installation of illegal software. The German giant has appealed this decision. To be continued.
Source: Bild am Sonntag
