Opel has been cleared of cheating emissions tests in France, following an investigation by the French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF).
A DGCCRF statement clarifies that no evidence of deception was found in the cars’ NOx emissions, following the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
Tests were carried out by France’s Technical Union of Automobiles, Motorcycles and Cycles and the French Institute of Petroleum’s new energies branch, and checked against manufacturers’ official figures.
Since the VW emissions scandal first broke, numerous manufacturers’ emissions have been called into question, including investigations into Renault, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group which now owns Opel and UK subsidiary Vauxhall, in addition to Peugeot, Citroen and DS.
The DGCCRF added that despite Opel’s vindication, scrutiny of PSA Group is still taking place.
A PSA Group statement said: "PSA takes note of the decision made by the French Competition, Consumer Affairs and Prevention of fraud department (DGCCRF) to send the conclusions of its investigation to the public prosecutor, and expresses its surprise at this decision.
PSA would like to emphasise that the Group complies with the regulations in force in all countries where it operates. The Group’s vehicles have never been equipped with software or devices to detect a compliance test and to activate a pollutant treatment device that would be inactive in customer use. The results of the tests carried out by different European and French authorities have confirmed that the Group's vehicles comply with regulatory tests criteria."
We are awaiting official comment from Vauxhall.
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Isn't it time we got all vehicles independently tested?
Appoint a respected organisation such as Cosworth, Williams or Richardo, with an oversight auditor, and allow them to test to the Applicable EU standards. The same computer controlled tests for everyone!
Vehicles sourced at random from dealers not from manufacturers or press fleets.
Diesel and Petrol. Manual and Auto. Each engine size and power output. Body configuration etc. Basic spec and fully loaded with options that impact fuel consumption. i.e. Fat tyres, A/C etc..
Start with the largest volume segments. So A,B, C, C-SUV etc. Of vehicles currently on sale.
Publish the findings of the tests on a public website.
CO2 because vehicle tax is based on this.
NOX and Particulates by size because of current health issues
Other measurable pollutants i.e. Carbon Monoxide, Sulphur, Sulphur Dioxide, heavy metals etc.
It may be that it is an expensive process. There will be a lot of tests to conduct.
We may have to test vehicles that are one year old and go back to say five years. Also consider the impact of mileage, so of popular models sample vehicles with full service histories at 20k km intervals.
It may be that lots of vehicles, brands and manufacturers are embarrassed.
We may have to give everyone an amnesty and a period to modify or replace existing products to meet air polution standards but the issue is too important to ignore or fail to take urgent and accountable action.
The car buying public should understand what they are buying. There shouldn't be retrospective penalisations of the motor vehicle owners. Any future scrapage scheme can be targeted at the worst poluting vehicle groups first.
It may be that small capacity diesel cars need addressing first because their poluting impact is greatest due to volume of sales. Large low volume vehicles will require a different solution.
Seeing as most Vauxhall's use
The PSA statement leaves some