Renault charged over dieselgate investigation

Renault said on Tuesday that a French court has charged the automaker with deception over a diesel emissions investigation started in 2017, focused on some of its older automobiles and suspected test manipulations.

Several automakers in Europe have come under scrutiny since the Volkswagen’s emissions scandal which was disclosed in 2015 over using defeat devices in diesel vehicles in the United States.

Renault has rejected any misconduct.

“Renault denies having committed any violation, and reiterates that its vehicles are not by any measure geared up with systems that would enable it to cheat in emissions testing,” the automaker said.

“All our vehicles have always been approved in accordance with applicable laws and regulations,” the automaker added.

Renault’s product engineering boss Gilles Le Borgne informed reporters it was unclear how many of the automaker’s cars were possibly affected by the investigation.

Le Borgne said that the anti-pollution technology also called “NOx trap” in use at the time in the vehicles had known limitations, and only operated in an optimal manner at low speeds.

“The limits of these anti-pollution systems were associated with the security of our clients and to their own technological and chemicophysical limitations,” he said on Tuesday.