Daimler today announced that at the request of the u.s. Department of Justice has opened an investigation to determine if the process of certification of the emissions of vehicles with diesel engines is fraudulent. This interest of the Government of the united States is motivated by the complaint of a group of owners of cars of the brand to make sure that their diesel models violated the regulations of local emissions, and even that had a defeat device as the one used by Volkswagen.
The law firm Hagens Berman has said that the models diesel BlueTEC Mercedes emit high levels of oxides of nitrogen much higher than the laboratory conditions when driving in real world conditions. Despite the fact that Daimler has branded the allegations of the law firm accuser of little substantiated, the German group has announced that it will cooperate with the authorities and they will investigate all of the possible indications of irregularities, in addition to taking the appropriate measures in the case can be shown to be such a thing.
According to the indictment, the systems of control of NOx emissions from the engines BlueTEC Mercedes fail to function properly when the temperature is lower than 10 ° C, which makes the NOx emissions are 19 times higher to be covered by the law in the united States. The research carried out in the next few weeks will have to see if this is a sign of manipulation or if Mercedes have cheated with their diesel engines using any other system. A few months ago, the brand was declared innocent, on the grounds that all its engines comply with the regulations of all the countries in which they are marketed.
This is the first time in the united States the focus of the authorities falls on mercedes, six months after the Department of Justice said that it would consider all of the diesel passenger cars market in search of evidence such as that uncovered the scandal Dieselgate of Volkswagen. To reduce NOx emissions from their diesel engines, the engine family BlueTEC uses the injection of AdBlue ® , an aqueous solution of urea, into the exhaust to neutralize these gases are so harmful for the health.
Source – Automotive News Europe