In the diesel scandal device Daimler more under pressure. The Federal Motor Vehicle Office (KBA), according to a report of “Bild am Sonntag” (BamS) has now discovered five “inadmissible shutdown functions” on Daimler models.
end of May the mirror had already reported that the Daimler Group threatens the official recall of more than 600,000 diesel vehicles due to inadmissible defeat devices, including the C and G series. Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer called on the auto company in early June to quickly clarify the scale of the scam software and granted a two-week deadline that ends on Monday.
Like other manufacturers, Daimler uses a urea solution to purify exhaust gases. However, according to KBA, the efficiency deteriorates without any explainable reason as soon as the engine has emitted 17.6 grams of nitrogen oxides after the start. In another software function, the engine control changes to dirty exhaust mode after 1200 seconds (in newer models after 2000 seconds).
Almost a million vehicles affected
The KBA suspects that the software functions in a large part of the newer diesel fleet (Euro 6) is used and nearly one million vehicles are affected.
A Daimler spokesman did not want to comment on the offending functions, according to BamS, now pointed out that one official recall of 6300 models of the Vito transporter contradicted. In addition, Daimler cooperates fully and transparently with the KBA and the Federal Ministry of Transport. The spokesman also affirmed that Daimler contradicts, if the KBA thinks it is an inadmissible defeat device.
According to the report, shortly after the announcement of the VW diesel scandal in autumn 2015, Daimler initiated secret exhaust gas tests under the code name “Project HL”. “HL” stands for Hogan Lovells, a law firm. Several engine variants were investigated in the tests. The results were partly devastating.
Upon request, a spokesman confirmed the tests, but did not want to comment on the results because they were meant for “internal use” and were never shared with a government agency.
Illegal defeat devices had the Diesel scandal at Volkswagen triggered in September 2015. At VW, Audi and Porsche, such “defeat devices” were used to test the regulations for nitrogen oxide in the USA. Due to the shutdown device, the exhaust gas cleaning works only on the test bench of the authorities, but not in traffic.
Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche had emphasized shortly after flying up the diesel scandal at VW, at Mercedes there is no “defeat device” for manipulating the exhaust gas purification.