19 million diesel vehicles in Europe do not meet pollution standards, says NGO

Eight years after the dieselgate, new suspicions weigh on a very large scale on the car manufacturers. In 2016, this scandal led to the establishment of a commission which revealed in a first report a significant number of overruns. What we are discovering today is the scale of dysfunction. According to the International Council on Clean Transport, an environmental NGO, 19 million diesel vehicles in Europe do not meet pollution standards. This is a pollution in particular with nitrogen oxide. It is a toxic gas suspected of causing the premature death of more than 7,000 people in France each year. It is mainly found in town. It is released by the exhaust pipes of vehicles.

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No less than 200 models are concerned. They were put into circulation between 2009 and 2019. According to the NGO, 40% of the vehicles tested emit at qualified levels “of extremes” while three million of them are in circulation in France.

To establish its report, the NGO dug into official, but also independent databases. It also had access to radar tests at the exhaust outlets. The data was established in the laboratory and under real conditions. They concern diesel vehicles to Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards, which aim to limit polluting gas emissions as much as possible.

Manufacturers suspected of cheating on their vehicles’ emissions

There is software that regulates the pollution control system. This is called the thermal window. It is programmed to only operate at certain temperatures or altitudes. The manufacturers explain that this is done to protect the engine. The NGOs suspect a device programmed to operate in test conditions and then allow savings in real conditions. The Court of Justice of the European Union has just ruled on this subject. In a case concerning the Mercedes brand, it considered that consumers should benefit from a right of repair which the Member States must enforce for each model concerned. Since 2020, a European regulation obliges States to test cars and rectify the problems detected. The NGOs regret the lack of voluntarism and the delay taken on the subject. But they find that today the noose is beginning to tighten.