French automaker, Opel, was raided by German prosecutors over the allegations that the company lied about its diesel emissions. German officials have recalled nearly 100,000 vehicles after the raid. The German federal transport authority KBA has filed charges against Opel on Monday and accused them of making cars that have manipulated exhaust software. These systems are rigged and makes it look like the car is emitting less exhaust gases than it truly is.
KBA prosecutors told the media that nearly 95,000 cars were suspected to have this manipulation done with their exhaust system. The ministry said in a statement, “After a fifth defeat device was discovered in early 2018, which (motor authority KBA) found to be illegal, there is currently an official hearing going on with the goal of imposing a mandatory recall for the models Cascada, Insignia, and Zafira.” According to the estimates from the KBA, the diesel models of Opel were exceeding emission standards more than 10 times than the legal limit.
??: Wir bekräftigen, dass unsere Fahrzeuge den geltenden Vorschriften entsprechen.
??: Opel reaffirms that its vehicles comply with the applicable regulations.
Statement: pic.twitter.com/HidWFFAwga— Stellantis Deutschland (@StellantisDE) October 15, 2018
The statement further stated, “The official recall of the affected roughly 100,000 vehicles will take place shortly. We cannot comment on details concerning the ongoing investigation at this moment in time. The company is fully cooperating with the authorities. Opel reaffirms that its vehicles comply with the applicable regulations.” After the recall was made public, Opel said that it would cooperate with the authorities.
Opel officials said in a press conference that public prosecutors from Frankfurt had raided the German headquarters in Ruesselsheim and Kaiserslautern factory in south-west Germany. The company still claims that their cars are up to the emission standards in Germany and whole Europe. The probe started in July, and the German officials said that they could not make anything public until the examination was done. A French automotive maker PSA bought Opel last year. It was previously owned by General Motors who sold the company 1.3 billion euros. PSA has also declined to comment to the press regarding the diesel accusations of Opel or its sister brand Vauxhall.
Several manufacturers are dealing with irregular or manipulated diesel numbers like Opel. Back in 2015, Volkswagen admitted putting ‘defected devices’ on more than 11 million cars to make the cars seem less polluting in the lab settings than on the road. After that, BMW and Daimler were also probed for similar charges by the German officials. Audi’s former chief also quit his job for withholding information and providing false information to investors about the company’s emissions issues.
