Daimler selects Deloitte to undertake probe into its diesel engines

Daimler has selected Deloitte to sort through e-mails and files in an effort to find whether the car-maker used “defeat gadgets” to cheat contamination controls.

The German automobile giant behind the Mercedes Benz marque appointed private investigators from the consultancy to see if there is evidence its staff installed diesel motor with systems to tackle pollution levels.

Daimler is the current firm to obtain drawn into the “dieselgate” emissions scandal, which emerged in September when Volkswagen was captured cheating the tests in the US. Because Volkswagen has confessed more than 11m vehicles worldwide are affected and activated an evaluation by American regulators of all diesel-powered vehicles sold in the United States.

Last week German regulators agreed with makers consisting of Daimler, Volkswagen-owned Audi and Porsche, and General Motors’ Opel a recall of 630,000 vehicles to tweak software controlling diesel engines.

Stuttgart-based Daimler stated it was running the internal examination of its accreditation process for exhaust emissions at the demand of the Justice Department, and was co-operating totally.