Several companies constructed their engines in such a way that the toxin nitric oxide is given off by their cars unfiltered at low temperature levels, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports on figures acquired from transport authorities.
The evidence originates from screening carried out by the Federal Office of Motor Cars (KBA), which carried out the examinations on automobiles made by Mercedes manufacturer Daimler, BMW, and Volkswagen, along with a number of foreign vehicle makers.
A total of 50 different vehicle models were tested, with a number of them failing the legal requirement for the protection of the environment, some of them being by multiples of the legal limit.
The Ministry of Transportation has actually already informed several firms that they will have to recall automobiles making adjustments to the engines.
The automobile companies declare that their systems for cleaning up pollutants are switched off at low temperatures to secure motors, as is allowed by EU policies.
Some utilize this policy to flex the rules, only having the system switch on when the temperature exterior is 10 or 20 centigrade, the SZ claims.
Full outcomes of the testing are yet to be revealed, with the transportation ministry wanting to wait until it has the most extensive information possible prior to launching them to the general public.
However the authorities are stated to be taken aback by the degree to which automobile companies have bent the guidelines.
Main testing of the emissions cleaning up systems normally take place at temperatures of about 23 degrees Celsius.
But suspicions that car firms enabled these gadgets to turn off, or end up being much less reliable, at lower temperature levels appeared verified when a lot of the vehicles were recorded producing much greater levels of nitric oxide in screening at lower temperatures.
In 2015, Volkswagen ended up being involved in an international scandal when United States authorities discovered they had actually set up a so-called defeat gadget in their diesel engines, which meant that nitric oxide emissions were only tidied up in the exhaust system when vehicles went through main testing.
Just recently, Volkswagen bosses came under large criticism after Spiegel reported they were choosing not to forgo their yearly benefits – after asking employees to tighten their belts with much shorter hours and other cost-cutting steps as the producer fights for its future.
