Photo: Fiat
While the Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal begins to cool off in the media, some campaigners don’t want to lose the momentum and are pushing forward, accusing other brands too of lying about the nitrous oxide emissions of their cars.
One such group is called DUH (German Environmental Aid) and stems from Germany. Among its victims so far are Opel, Renault and Mercedes-Benz, but all these companies denied the accusations and haven’t been proven guilty.
The latest brand to feel DUH’s wrath is FCA’s Fiat, particularly the 500X 2.0-liter diesel model, the small SUV launched last year. Since it shares most of its technical bits with the Jeep Renegade, it’s safe to assume that the suspicion of foul play extends over its American counterpart as well.
The Fiat 500X was tested by the University of Applied Sciences in Bern, Switzerland, and according to DUH, it was found to emit NOx levels that exceeded anywhere between 11 and 22 times the allowed European limits. The DUH even says that, on some occasions, the readings were so high they went off the scale of the reading instruments, which would almost be funny if it weren’t also quite scary.
FCA previously stated that their diesel cars don’t use any sort of defeat devices and that the car’s control systems operate in the same way regardless of the testing conditions (on the road or in a laboratory). It also made it very clear that its vehicles’ emissions are within the EU approved limits when tested according to the existing laws.
The lobbyists, however, think that these very high readings registered in the independent tests are a clear indication of the existence of a defeat device, since they wouldn’t be technically plausible in any other way. The discrepancy between the official numbers and the real ones, as obtained from the Bern University tests, is just too great, they say.
But don’t expect anything too drastic to happen. Just last week, the EU announced it would permit diesel engines to exceed the allowed limits by up to 110 percent until 2020 and by 50 percent from then on. It would appear that if these independent environmentalist groups still want to do something about, they’re going to have to take it to court, as the car industry seems to have the politicians’ backing one way or another.
FCA hasn’t commented on the subject yet.
The latest brand to feel DUH’s wrath is FCA’s Fiat, particularly the 500X 2.0-liter diesel model, the small SUV launched last year. Since it shares most of its technical bits with the Jeep Renegade, it’s safe to assume that the suspicion of foul play extends over its American counterpart as well.
The Fiat 500X was tested by the University of Applied Sciences in Bern, Switzerland, and according to DUH, it was found to emit NOx levels that exceeded anywhere between 11 and 22 times the allowed European limits. The DUH even says that, on some occasions, the readings were so high they went off the scale of the reading instruments, which would almost be funny if it weren’t also quite scary.
FCA previously stated that their diesel cars don’t use any sort of defeat devices and that the car’s control systems operate in the same way regardless of the testing conditions (on the road or in a laboratory). It also made it very clear that its vehicles’ emissions are within the EU approved limits when tested according to the existing laws.
The lobbyists, however, think that these very high readings registered in the independent tests are a clear indication of the existence of a defeat device, since they wouldn’t be technically plausible in any other way. The discrepancy between the official numbers and the real ones, as obtained from the Bern University tests, is just too great, they say.
But don’t expect anything too drastic to happen. Just last week, the EU announced it would permit diesel engines to exceed the allowed limits by up to 110 percent until 2020 and by 50 percent from then on. It would appear that if these independent environmentalist groups still want to do something about, they’re going to have to take it to court, as the car industry seems to have the politicians’ backing one way or another.
FCA hasn’t commented on the subject yet.
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