Now Daimler is enmeshed in its own 'Dieselgate'

Frankfurt, Germany - Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche has been summoned to meet transport minister Andreas Scheuer after Germany's KBA motor vehicle authority discovered “inadmissible defeat devices” in Mercedes-Benz engines. German weekly Bild am Sonntag reported on Sunday that as many as a million cars could contain software to cheat emissions tests on diesel vehicles.

All carmakers use software to manage exhaust emissions filtering and engine performance, but a device can be classified as illegal if exhaust filtering systems are deactivated too early or without good reason. Daimler, like other car manufacturers, uses urea nitrate liquids to neutralise nitrogen oxide emissions in exhaust fumes, but the KBA is taking issue with the emission control features amid suspicions that they allow vehicles to emit excess pollution without detection, although Daimler insistes the software is legal. read more »

Audi CEO named as suspect in German emissions probe

German prosecutors on Monday widened an emissions cheating probe into Volkswagen’s luxury carmaker Audi to include the brand’s Chief Executive Rupert Stadler among the suspects accused of fraud and false advertising.

Almost three years after Volkswagen admitted to falsifying U.S. diesel emissions tests, the Munich public prosecutor’s office said it was now probing 20 suspects, and had on Monday searched the apartment of Stadler and one other board member.

The news came after Germany’s Bild am Sonntag reported up to a million Daimler cars had been found to contain illegal emissions devices, showing how the fallout from Volkswagen’s scandal continues to dog the industry. read more »