French investigators have found a large number of diesel cars emit much higher levels of pollution than their European manufacturers claim, reports The Guardian.
The claims were revealed by France’s environment ministry after a 10-month investigation ordered following the “Dieselgate” scandal over Volkswagen’s use of software to cheat emissions tests.
According to the independent committee’s report, around a third of the 86 diesel vehicles tested produced levels of toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) well above European limits. The results echo similar findings in tests by the UK’s Department for Transport.
The worst offenders were the Fiat 500X, Volvo V40, the Renault Talisman and Espace models, the Nissan Qashqai and the Ford Kuga, Opel Astra and Mokka.
The experts said they could not categorically state whether any carmaker had used software to cheat the emissions tests as they had no access to the computer programmes used by the manufacturers.
“The commission cannot, therefore, make any definitive statement on the presence or absence of ‘cheating’ software in the vehicles tested,” it reported.
The report found the Renault Talisman recorded 57.6mg NOx per kilometre in lab tests against a real world figure of 926.1mg/km. The worst offender, the Fiat 500X, was found to emit 1,354mg/km as opposed to 68.2mg/km, or almost 17 times the legal limit.
However, French media was sceptical the government would sanction Renault, a partially state-owned company.