Daimler has been forced to recall 60,000 Mercedes Benz GLK 220 diesel cars in Germany after it has been established that the cars have a software that tinkers with emission tests. The news was announced by German Transportation Ministry over the weekend.
Daimler has confirmed that the Mercedes Benz GLK 220 that was produced between 2012 and 2015 has been ordered to be recalled however the company also stated that it would be appealing against the decision taken by German Transportation Ministry.
German Transportation Ministry has also stated that the investigation into the company is not over and is scheduled to expand to other models as well now. The first company to admit that it was cheating in the emission tests was Volkswagen back in 2015. Since then, it has been found that many other carmakers are also carrying out similar practices.
Thanks to excess emissions, Daimler has already recalled about three million cars. However, as per the German news outlet – Bild am Sonntag – the investigation by German regulatory authorities is far from over and will only expand to other vehicles. So what made Mercedes Benz GLK 220 CDI cars a suspect? As it happens, the models that were produced between 2012 and 2015, were able to meet the emission limits only when particular features were activated on the car’s software.
These scandals are greatly disrupting the business of the carmakers that are involved. Volkswagen has paid over €25 billion in fines and compensation fees and is also undergoing a sales-reduction. It has also been established that many car manufacturers are actually colluding to come up with ‘defeat devices’ to get their models to clear regulatory investigations.
Nonetheless, some car manufacturers are opting to come out before they undergo a review. Take the example of Audi; it carried out an internal investigation and found out about irregularities in the emission controls of A7 and A6 models.
EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said, ‘EU competition rules do not allow them to collude on exactly the opposite: not to improve their products, not to compete on quality. We are concerned that this is what happened in this case.’
