Volkswagen diesel vehicles fitted with the infamous “defeat device” can cheat European emissions tests, lab tests have suggested.
These tests were carried out by BBC Panorama using a Volkswagen Passat Bluemotion model.
The lab ran the vehicle to the Euro 5 testing standard, which it passed, emitting 167mg/km of NOx – safely below the EU5 NOx limit of 180mg/km of NOx.
The programme then tested the vehicle with a hot engine (the EU5 testing procedure requires vehicles to start with a cold engine) when it emitted 435mg/km of NOx – more than twice the official limit.
“With this software, it was possible for the vehicle to recognise laboratory test conditions and the engine control could switch over to emitting compliant nitrogen dioxide levels during the test cycle,” VW confirmed to the BBC.
“This would have been the likely condition in your test. As you ran the second test (described as a hot test) immediately afterwards, the vehicle did not recognise this as a test condition and changed its emission strategy,” it added.
The BBC also tested a 1.6-litre diesel Vauxhall Zafira, which has previously been dragged into the emissions scandal by a German pressure group. Panorama found that this model also exceeded EU5 NOx limits, when tested with a hot engine, though Vauxhall denies the existence of any software to trick the test.
“Vauxhall has clearly stated that its vehicles do not have any feature that detects that a vehicle is undergoing an emissions test, including any feature that would respond to wheels turning,” Vauxhall said in a statement.
“Vauxhall products comply with all regulatory requirements, including the in-service emissions testing program, according to EU rules,” it added.
“These requirements are periodically audited by the approval authority.
We suspect that the vehicle tested (Zafira 1.6 diesel) was not performing correctly and/or the test execution was not correctly set up.”
