Commission knew software skewed results of exhaust readings
EU officials had warned of the dangers of defeat devices two years before the Volkswagen emissions scandal broke, highlighting Europe’s failure to police the car industry.
A 2013 report by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre drew attention to the challenges posed by the devices, which are able to skew the results of exhaust readings.
But regulators then failed to pursue the issue — despite the fact the technology had been illegal in Europe since 2007. EU officials said they had never specifically looked for such a device themselves and were not aware of any national authority that located one.
The technology is at the heart of a scandal that exploded last Friday when US regulators revealed Volkswagen had used it to rig emissions tests, potentially laying itself open to criminal charges and substantial fines.
The Environmental Protection Agency said the defeat devices turn on emissions controls when vehicles are being tested but turn them off during regular driving. This means that while on the road, the cars are able to emit up to 40 times the amount of nitrogen oxides that US environmental standards allow.
Volkswagen’s supervisory board announced on Friday that it had appointed Matthias Müller, head of Porsche, as its new chief executive. He replaces Martin Winterkorn, who stood down over the scandal.
Initially the focus was exclusively on cars sold by Volkswagen in the US market. But Germany has now said that the company cheated in the same way in Europe as well.
The inability of regulators across the EU to expose this deceit has shone a spotlight on the lobbying power of the European motor industry, which has made a huge gamble on diesel. Some 53 per cent of new car sales in the EU are diesels, up from just over 10 per cent in the early 1990s.
The issue of who knew what, and when, about defeat devices also surfaced in the UK. The opposition Labour party attacked the government after it admitted receiving evidence nearly a year ago that some diesel cars were fitted to rig emissions testing.
The Department for Transport said that in October 2014 it received a report by the International Council on Clean Transportation saying there was a “real world nitrogen oxides compliance issue” for diesel passenger cars.
The ICCT said it tested 15 vehicles and found they produced an average of seven times the legal limit for the deadly gas. One car produced 25 times the limit.
The DfT said the report demonstrated the shortcomings in the old testing system and that ministers had been pushing for the EU to accelerate the introduction of a real-driving emissions test.
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre drew a similar conclusion, arguing in its report that diesel cars should be tested on the road rather in the lab to reduce the risk of manipulation.
“Sensors and electronic components in modern light-duty vehicles are capable of ‘detecting’ the start of an emissions test in the laboratory,’’ it said. The devices could also “activate, modulate, delay, or deactivate emissions control systems”,’ the report warned. Moving to on-road testing should ensure “that the use of defeat strategies is decreased as far as possible’’.
On-road emissions tests conducted by the JRC “show that the real-world nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions of . . . light-duty diesel vehicles substantially exceed the regulatory emissions standards’’, the study added. “The existing on-road tests unequivocally point to weaknesses in the current type-approval procedure.’’
Since the EU banned defeat devices in 2007, the European Commission has attempted to introduce legislation to test diesel cars in a more realistic “real-world” environment. It argues that these new on-the-road tests will be able to counter the effect of illegal software.
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However, green groups and members of the European Parliament have protested that these reforms have been delayed for eight years by the powerful diesel lobby.
Greenpeace complained that, according to publicly available data, diesel manufacturers had spent as much as €18.5m lobbying Brussels in 2014, employing 184 lobbyists.
“As evidence emerges that the German government and the European Commission knew about the test-cheating software, people will be wondering why it took the Americans to expose it. The extent of the carmakers’ lobbying power could provide some clues to the answer,” said John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK.
Two EU officials observed that there was nothing new in mid-level technical officials flagging their worries about a seemingly doctored test environment. However, attempts to act on those fears never gained much traction in a highly politicised commission environment, one said.
Authorities across Europe have been passing the buck over who is responsible. The European Commission argues that it has no power to force the national authorities to look for default devices. But Germany has responded to a question about the cheating in tests by citing the view of the commission that there was no agreed method for preventing the use of illegal software.
Christofer Fjellner, a Swedish parliamentarian, said it was unacceptable for Brussels to pass the blame entirely to member states.
“The commission is responsible for seeing we have a control framework that works. We know there are companies that don’t give a damn about the rules,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission said: “When it comes to policing of companies’ compliance with EU law and investigative powers that is for the national authorities in this area.’’
“We are inviting all member states to carry out investigations,’’ she said, adding that the commission’s role was to act as a “a platform to facilitate the exchange of information between member state authorities”.
Officials from national transport ministries and the commission will discuss the issue on October 6, when there will be a discussion on expanding the scope of the investigation beyond VW.