Car Manufacturer News
The DoJ is Looking into Mercedes’ Possible Emissions Cheating
Just when diesel engines were starting to show signs of potentially increasing in demand in the U.S., they take another hit. This time around, Mercedes parent company, Daimler, is being looked into by the Department of Justice for potential cheating. According to a new report from Automotive News Europe, the DoJ has requested the German automaker initiate an internal investigation to see if its diesel engines are falsifying emission ratings.
This new investigation comes on the heels of a class-action lawsuit filed by owners of BlueTEC-powered Mercedes vehicles that claimed the brand installed cheat devices to limit emissions during testing. Like Volkswagen, this lawsuit claims that the engines actually spew much more nitrogen oxide emissions in real-world driving thank in testing.
Daimler, as expected, is denying that it has cheated in any way and calls the lawsuit “without merit.” And while the automaker finds it odd that the DoJ is acting alone in this investigation—typically the EPA and CARB would be involved too—it is still “cooperating fully with the authorities.”
Daimler did mention that, while it feels that it committed no fraud, there could be procedural issues in its U.S. certification that could have spurred this lawsuit. This indicates that there is the possibility of some inaccurate emission numbers in the U.S., but it would be nowhere near the scale of VW’s cheating device.
We’ll continue monitoring this developing story and bring you updates as they become available.
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