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Excess emissions found in Benz’s diesel models, claims green body
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German environmental lobby group DUH turned on carmaker Daimler yesterday, saying test results had shown nitrogen oxide emissions from one of its Mercedes-Benz diesel models far exceeded European legal limits.
Daimler described the results from a Mercedes-Benz C-Class 200 CDI as “questionable,” saying the model used technology that met European Union standards and threatening legal action should “false claims” damage its reputation.
Citing tests carried out by the University of Applied Sciences in Bern, Switzerland, DUH told a news conference that the car, a 2011 model, had released emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) that were more than twice the legal limits when tested with a warm engine under new European testing cycles.
The carmaker took issue with DUH’s assertions.
“The test results are questionable as the conditions of the test are not clear. We don’t know the specific car, the temperature at the time of the tests, the loading weight,” a Daimler spokesman said.
Fellow German carmaker Volkswagen is engulfed in a scandal after rigging the results of exhaust emissions tests in the United States.
DUH has made charges against a number of other motor manufacturers. In October, it said a model built by General Motors’ Opel division had shown excessive emissions of nitrous oxide, an assertion that was denied by Opel at the time.
French rival Renault has also contested findings cited by DUH that one of its minivans released toxic diesel emissions 25 times over legal limits.
Daimler said in a statement that the car tested in Switzerland used technology certified in 2007 that met the EU’s Euro-5 standard. It acknowledged that results under real driving conditions often differed from those in a laboratory.
In September, DUH accused Daimler of also rigging emissions data, charges the company denied at the time.
It repeated the denial yesterday, saying: “We reserve at all times the right to take legal action should false claims or unjustified allegations damage the reputation of our company.”
The discrepancies between laboratory-based results and real-world emissions measurements are part of a wider pattern that affects the entire auto industry and not just VW, Opel and Renault, DUH said.
Axel Friedrich, a former official at the German environmental protection agency, said this was also the case with the Mercedes-Benz model. “If we had tested other vehicles from other manufacturers, we would have determined the same or similar results,” said Friedrich, who is a co-founder of the Washington-based International Council on Clean Transportation.
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