The EPA said in February it had requested information from Daimler in light of a lawsuit filed by U.S. Mercedes owners but had not opened an official investigation.
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Daimler said the lawsuit’s claims are without merit and the investigation is unrelated.
The move followed a probe of 53 models by Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority that was sparked by revelations a year ago about Volkswagen’s emissions test cheating.
In Asia, Mitsubishi Motors has also been forced to admit it cheated on fuel-efficiency tests.
On the same day Volkswagen unveiled an agreement with US regulators over its dirty diesels, Daimler revealed that the US Department of Justice had put its own emissions in the crosshairs.
The potential for Daimler’s Mercedes unit to become embroiled in a scandal of the same scope as Volkswagen is probably limited because it sells relatively few diesel vehicles in the United States, analysts said.
Multiple tests, including one released this week by the British government, have shown that diesels from Daimler and other automakers, including Nissan, Ford and Hyundai, perform differently in lab tests than they do on the road, even without defeat devices.
The systems for cleaning pollutants are deactivated at low temperatures to protect motors or prevent a possible accident, as is allowed by European Union regulations, but it was not clear whether some makers used this provision to bend the rules. “Alfa Romeo, Chevrolet, Dacia, Fiat, Hyundai, Jaguar, Jeep, Land Rover, Nissan and Suzuki”.
Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler said Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice asked for an internal investigation into how it certifies exhaust emissions.
“Daimler will consequently investigate possible indications of irregularities and of course take all necessary actions”, the company said in a statement. The firm said the cost of provisions to cover the emissions scandal had risen to $18.14 billion from a previous estimate of $7.5 billion.
The Volkswagen announcement follows agreement in a USA federal court in San Francisco on the outlines of a deal with US environmental authorities.
It was also recently announced that the VW Group has cut a deal with the USA government to fix or buy back 482,000 models that were affected by the emissions test-cheating scandal while Mitsubishi’s confirmed that it had broken Japanese laws by over-inflating tyres on vehicles to improve fuel economy figures.
There are also questions over whether it will offer compensation to the much larger number of diesel drivers affected outside the United States, as well as who will be blamed for the scandal in several ongoing investigations.
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On advice of the company’s attorneys, management and directors, the company said “a disclosure of interim results of the investigation at this point in time would present unacceptable risks for Volkswagen and, therefore, can not take place now”.
