The excuse of the BMW Group on Friday night last week was remarkable: It was “mistakenly” a wrong software on two models in the luxury segment played, the 7 Series and the 5s. Professionals made the denial of Bavaria sit up and take notice: If the press people are right in their message, there would be serious shortcomings in the quality control of the group – which would have to lead to drastic sanctions on the part of the authorities.
Many of these models cost well over 100,000 euros; BMW customers should not have enjoyed the error. The carmaker from Munich has delivered 11,700 cars that have significantly lower nitrogen oxide limits than allowed. And nobody in Munich should have noticed? Even though the regulations oblige each carmaker to measure two per cent of all delivered vehicles in its own production controls, in this case over 200 cars?
The legend that BMW According to publications in SPIEGEL hastily disseminated, it should turn out to be a protective claim, a defense that could possibly turn out to be a momentous mistake. The kowtowing should obviously distract from the fact that BMW has much bigger problems: In addition to an environmental problem and a major credibility problem, especially the Chairman of the Board Harald Krüger into trouble.
He had always claimed that BMW would sell “clean” diesel, a statement that had earned him the anger of his board colleagues at VW and Mercedes. The find it namely not fun that the competitor tries to profile now over two years since the announcement of the diesel scandal at their expense.
The protective hand from Berlin is gone
Also the mood in the Federal Government against BMW has clouded itself after the admission arg bad. Those responsible had believed the alleged cleanmen from Bavaria and held a protective hand over the group. Even then, as the German environmental aid (DUH) extremely precarious readings on a BMW 320 had presented, which are an indication of defeat devices in the exhaust system of the vehicle. What makes the credibility of BMW in Berlin wavering, are the circumstances, as the exhaust gas manipulation are revealed. The Federal Ministry of Transport is suspected that BMW operates a sophisticated system that warns the group against, if its own vehicles to be checked by the authorities.
The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) worried the car about BMW dealers, which are obviously dependent on the Group to report this immediately to Munich. Even with the BMW 7 Series, which had been requested a few weeks ago at a dealer for control measurement, this happened. The result was hectic activity in the corporate headquarters in Munich.
According to information from the SPIEGEL, which violently contradicts BMW, the attempt should have been made to subject the car before the tests of the Flensburg registration authorities a “service” by BMW. The suspicion in the Ministry: The software would have been dubbed and the manipulations were covered up. “There are some indications that this is an attempt to deceive the Group,” states the Federal Government. A monstrous suspicion, which is now to be pursued with a detailed investigation of software stands and also the internal quality at BMW.
Deny, give in, distract
Brisant is this harsh action of the authorities, especially because BMW has been suspected in the past several times to have committed similar emissions manipulation, as they have been proven in the competition – only that the Bavarians trickily convinced the auditors of their Car is all right. Perhaps, however, exactly with the methods that the KBA and the Ministry of Transport are now trying to prove.
The mistrust on the state side has become even greater, because BMW claims in its statement on Friday, they had pointed the authorities themselves to the wrong software. This is not a lie, because the KBA had ordered the engineers after their strange behavior in the procurement of the model 7 and the BMW people have admitted the irregularities.
But why did BMW approach the authorities only last week when they had already ordered BMW?
The 7 Series model we’re talking about was already noticeable last spring with measurements by the DUH. The highly cultivated six-cylinder unit of the 7ers, which was also very popular with ministries throughout the country as a company car, had expelled it with 646 milligrams of nitric oxide per kilometer, eight times the allowable amount. At that time BMW denied that manipulation had been carried out on the exhaust system. And not only that.
Customer checks himself – and will find it
According to information from the SPIEGEL had already turned in October 2015, a buyer of the 750d xDrive to the customer service. The man is an expert, he runs a catalyst company in Franconia. He also has a corresponding meter, which he hung in the exhaust of his 150,000-euro BMW and had repeatedly found dramatic values.
The entrepreneur made a whole series of measured values available to the group, which showed abnormalities while driving. BMW let his complaint cool off. The vehicle, according to a customer advisor, was “type-tested and therefore fully complies with the specifications”. But the man persisted until finally a coworker of BMW whispered to him that he should “not snoop around in the technology”. As the BMW driver’s collar collapsed.
In the fall of 2016, he sued his dealer. BMW remained in the picture during the trial, which is still pending before a court in Bamberg. The response from BMW was always the same: everything was fine on the customer’s car. The BMW Group continues to commission TÜV Süd to assess the conformity of the vehicle type in question, and TÜV SÜD confirmed the vehicle’s conformity by letter of 02 December 2016. There were no further measurements at this time Reason, “said a spokesman at the request of SPIEGEL.
The state inspectors want to turn every stone at BMW now. The suspicion of the officials, possibly for years to have been led by the group by the nose, gnaws. “We assume that the relevant model 7 is a defeat device,” one of them said to the SPIEGEL.
BMW continues to contradict this: BMW has “performed all the tests properly.” In the context of these tests, the error is not identifiable, “said a spokesman for SPIEGEL.