The publication first reported that Renault, Nissan, Hyundai, Citroen, Fiat, Volvo and Jeep all had diesel vehicles that emitted more NOx in realistic driving conditions than compared to testing and now it has added Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi to the list. This comes a few weeks after the revelation that VW fooled American government officials by using software to doctor emissions figures during testing. The company eventually fessed up to the crime, which led to a major press relations disaster, a precipitous drop in the stock market, and ultimately Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn’s resignation from his post.
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Volkswagen was found to have installed technology to cheat on emissions tests, which affected 11 million diesel vehicles across the world, according to the Associated Press.
“The issue is a systemic one”, Nick Molden of Emissions Analytics told The Guardian. In September, Europe’s Transportation and Environment (T&E) organization claimed cars by several European automakers, including Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Opel, emit more pollutants in reality than in emissions tests.
As such, while testing 200 diesel vehicles, the cars were found to emit four times the standard limit, but it is still all legal. Honda diesel models released between 2.6 and six times the allowable levels, according to data obtained by the Guardian.
Unlike Volkswagen however, these other automakers show no indication that they used defeat devices or engaged in illegal activity in order to achieve these results. Mazda flunked by about three times while Mitsubishi was over the limit by about 3.4 times.
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It’s worth pointing out that all the vehicles tested were European-market diesels, many of which are not available in the US, and all of which passed either the current Euro 6 or the previous Euro 5 standard in the EU’s official lab-based testing. Molden and Thiruvengadam are both looking for changes in emissions testing to have the tests reflect real-world driving situations, not within heavily controlled lab conditions.
