The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) calls on Mercedes to recall 134,000 cars. According to the will of the authority, the manufacturer should replace a meanwhile forbidden refrigerant in air conditioners.
Burning Mercedes B-Class after crash test
Thursday, 27.04.2017
15:40 clock
In the so-called Refrigerant dispute between the automaker Mercedes, the federal government and the EU have been quiet for a long time. Now the dispute is in the next round: Daimler is to replace nearly 134,000 cars, the refrigerant in air conditioning. For this purpose, the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) called on him, as a spokesman for the authority on Thursday confirmed in Flensburg.
It is about vehicles of the brand Mercedes-Benz, which produces in the first half of 2013 and their air conditioners still with the now prohibited for new cars Refrigerant R134a were equipped. According to the KBA, the A-Class, B-Class, CLA-Class, S-Class and SL-Class are affected by the call-back request. The group should now remove the chemical from the air conditioning and fill in the controversial successor substance R1234yf. First had the “Frankfurter Rundschau” reported about it.
Daimler had not commented on the issue in detail on Thursday. The company is in exchange with the authority, said a spokesman. He later explained that the company had filed an appeal against the recall.
EU puts pressure on the Federal Government
Daimler had refused to use the new chemical developed by the US chemical companies Honeywell and Dupont, because they in our own tests led to fires in the engine compartment, This toxic toxins were created. The group then had air conditioners developed that use the non-flammable, natural refrigerant CO2. According to earlier data, Daimler had announced that from the beginning of 2017 to use the refrigerant R1234yf on a larger scale.
The recall now required by the KBA is apparently related to a process of the EU Commission against the federal government. Brussels sued Berlin at the end of 2015 in the European Court of Justice (ECJ), The allegation: Germany violates European law because it allows cars that contradict an EU directive – because the refrigerant R134a is largely prohibited for reasons of climate protection in Europe. Even then, the EU put pressure on the federal government and the KBA to order a recall of the affected Mercedes cars.