Top management adopts diesel fault

BMW had equipped thousands of vehicles with a fake exhaust software. At the Annual General Meeting, company boss Harald Krüger conceded the mistake publicly – and complained about the competition.


BMW-Chef Harald Krüger

BMW boss Harald Krüger

Thursday, 17.05.2018
12:19 clock

BMWChief Harald Krüger and Supervisory Board Chairman Norbert Reithofer have a breakdown in the emission control of a diesel engine granted, but denied any intention. “We made a mistake a few years ago,” said Krüger on Thursday at the BMW Annual General Meeting in Munich: In 11,700 BMW vehicles of the 5 Series and 7 Series was a wrong software has been installed. The Federal Motor Transport Authority had ordered in March the recall of the cars because of an inadmissible shutdown device.

Reithofer emphasized that the “manual, human error” did not mean that the exhaust emissions on the test bench were lower than on the road. Krüger said: “It has nothing to do with a targeted manipulation of engine control and exhaust gas purification.” BMW had in the exhaust scandal, which came through VW in autumn 2015 rolling, always claimed to have installed any fraud software in vehicles.

Exhaust problems with the 320d

A first suspicion, also BMW could have used illegal Abschalteinrichtungen, came by tests of the German environmental aid (DUH) on: The review of a BMW 320d had the end of 2017 revealed that the emission control from a speed of 2500 revolutions per minute apparently down regulated and off from 3500 revolutions was completely off. The nitrogen oxide levels of the car were up to seven times higher in normal road traffic than on the test bench.

BMW development board member Klaus Fröhlich had called the measurements of the DUH at that time as “frivolous and pulled over hair”. The DUH had not moved the car like a normal BMW driver, but forced “by targeted switching operations” in peripheral areas. Fröhlich’s allegations sounded strangely that speeds around 2500 rpm are absolutely normal during acceleration processes.

Hardware retrofitting for BMW does not make sense

According to Krüger, BMW is now waiting for the authorities to approve the corrected software. Hard regulations are popular today, complained the head of the company. BMW updates the software of its Euro-5 diesel cars from year of construction 2011, but consider a hardware retrofit for technically not useful. A swipe shared the BMW boss against VW. “The truth is: The actions of some manufacturers has harmed the entire industry,” said Krüger.

Even the late confession of BMW to have made a “mistake” in the exhaust gas cleaning, should not strengthen the confidence of customers in the sincerity of the auto industry and their diesel models.

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