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BMW Releases Full Statement Regarding Malicious Rumors about Its Diesel Engines

Yesterday we saw exactly how much damage a simple lie can cause. BMW’s stocks fell as much as to 9.3 percent at one point due to a fake article published by German magazine Auto Bild that claimed its cars are also not complying with emission regulations.
BMW X3 xDrive20d 1 photo
Photo: Catalin Garmacea
Unlike Volkswagen that came out and simply admitted they were in the wrong for some time, BMW quickly stepped up and said that they did nothing wrong. Yesterday all we had to go on was a short statement from a spokesperson saying that “There is no function to recognize emissions testing cycles at BMW. All emissions systems remain active outside the testing cycles.”

It all seemed very peculiar as well, as we reported, since the ICCT, the institution that has been carrying out these tests, said when revealing the Dieselgate scandal that Volkswagen’s results were compared to other manufacturers’ and BMW was amongst them. Furthermore, they said that the Bavarian cars performed ‘very well.' Therefore, Auto Bild’s claims were peculiar, to say the least.

Today, BMW released a full statement defending itself and claiming that they are not familiar with the claims of Auto Bild that has since retracted its story.

“We are not familiar with the test results mentioned by Auto Bild on 24 September concerning the emissions of a BMW X3 during a road test. No specific details of the test have yet been provided and, therefore, we cannot explain these results. We are contacting the ICCT and asking for clarification of the test they carried out,” said, amongst others, the release.

However, the Germans also went on to make a case for diesel engines, claiming that without their popularity, CO2 levels in Europe couldn’t have dropped so much in recent years.

“The progress achieved so far in CO2 reduction in Europe is largely due to the use of diesel technology. Meeting future requirements will not be feasible without diesel drive trains, since a diesel engine emits roughly 15 to 20 per cent less CO2 on average than a comparable petrol engine,” said the press release.

With BMW’s overall sales of diesels accounting for 38% of their total, we tend to believe them. In Europe, the percentage goes even higher with 8 out of every 10 cars sold here using compression-ignition units.
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