Diesel: the report that accuses Renault
For years, has Renault changed the performance of its engines so that they comply with emission standards ... only during the homologation tests? The question arises, in a lancinante way, reading a document overwhelming the French car manufacturer. This is a report drawn up by the Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF), which Libération was able to consult. The Constable de Bercy wrote these 39 pages in November 2016, after several weeks of investigation. It highlights Renault's emissions behavior and is harsh: "Renault SAS deceived consumers about the controls carried out, and in particular the regulatory control of the approval of pollutant emissions [...]. The company used a strategy aimed at distorting the results of antipollution tests. " This piece is now the cornerstone of the judicial inquiry opened by the Paris prosecutor's office on 12 January and entrusted to three examining magistrates Of the Tribunal de Grande Instance, Paris, specializing in attacks on public health.
Test series
Back in the fall of 2015. On the other side of the Atlantic, a laboratory of the University of West Virginia revealed the existence of software embedded clandestinely on some Volkswagen vehicles, triggering the scandal of the dieselgate. It allows to temporarily limit the emission of polluting gases, until the model receives its homologation. The software then deactivates and the car "releases", releasing nitrous oxide responsible for respiratory diseases up to 40 times more NO x in the atmosphere . The US Environmental Protection Agency then decides to sue the German manufacturer.
In Paris, Segolene Royal does not remain dangling arms. The Ministry of the Environment is launching a series of tests on vehicles marketed in France, to see if they are engaged in similar practices. Bercy, who does not want to remain out of play, mandates his armed arm, the DGCCRF, with a specific mission: to look for possible deception. On January 7, a squad of investigators landed without warning at the Renault headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) and at two research centers, for a search. The officials left with boxes of documents, Prelude to future hearings.
Obviously, the operation is shaking the direction of Renault. At the same time at the Ministry of the Environment, a series of meetings were held between car manufacturers and environmental associations, at the request of Ségolène Royal. Coordinator of the health-environment network at France Nature Environment (FNE), Charlotte Lepitre participated: "Before this operation, the discussions were quite extensive and we got answers to our questions. Afterwards, our interlocutors were much more defensive and our questions remained unanswered. Was there a causal relationship? " A few months later, the DGCCRF minutes provided the answer.
"Fraudulent arrangement"
The document highlights significant discrepancies between the performance of certain Renault engines at the time of their laboratory homologation and their use under actual conditions. That is to say by any driver on the roads of France. In this operation, the Renault Captur (Euro 6 standard) and the Clio IV (Euro 5) take off the pompom. The first exceeds the regulatory threshold for carbon dioxide emissions of 377% and the second of 305%! The investigators' comments are without appeal: "These results make it possible to suspect the installation of a fraudulent device which specifically modifies the operation of the engine, in order to reduce its NO x emissions under specific conditions of the homologation test, so that Emissions are within regulatory limits. " To a lesser extent, the Kadjar and Talisman models also emerge from the nails. Renault is suspected of "calibrating" its engines only to be allowed to circulate. This technique has a name: "preconditioning".
As the accused was in principle doubtful, the differences in emissions of engine pollutants could have been accidental. But several letters seized in the computers of Renault suggest the opposite. A mail exchanged on 25 November 2015 between the Director of Legal Affairs, the Director of Communications and the Head of Institutional Relations concludes: "This depollution system is therefore very quickly inoperative on the road but it works during the tests." For the investigators of the DGCCRF, the burdens are heavy since the analyzes in their possession "attest to the implementation of strategies fraudulent for more than seven years".
The calculation made by Bercy gives dizziness. Nearly 900,000 vehicles could have been marketed thanks to these questionable approvals, which represents 16.8 billion turnover. The icing on the cake: Unlike other large groups that are visibly more exposed to judicial risks, Renault has not put in place delegations of authority to its directors-general. It is therefore the CEO, Carlos Ghosn himself, who finds himself in the front line in the search for responsibilities. As for the Renault house, it faces a 10% fine of its annual turnover, ie 3.5 billion euros.
On February 10, when the results of Renault were presented , Libération asked its CEO whether it planned to provision in the group accounts in the future an amount to face a possible financial penalty. "For what reasons ? We do not know what is being blamed, " Carlos Ghosn said. On Tuesday, Libération again asked the management of the company to respond to the complaints of the DGCCRF. "Renault recalls that none of its services responsible for testing or marketing has infringed the complex technical and legal rules, European or national, concerning the approval of vehicles," the automaker replied by email.
"Deception"
The report of the DGCCRF was sent to the public prosecutor's office in Paris at the end of December. A few days later, a judicial investigation was opened for "deceit on the substantial qualities and the checks carried out". Significance of the file, it is not one but three investigating judges who have been appointed. They immediately reported to the Central Office for Environmental and Public Health (OCLAESP), a 70-gendarme unit that investigated the effects of the Mediator, PIP breast prostheses, and is currently working On Volkswagen engines. He will resume the investigation since the start, "a charge and a defense," according to an official close to the file. New searches, but also hearings of Renault officials are to be expected. Accustomed to the "road shows" that lead them to defend the performance of their company in the financial centers of the world, Renault executives will now have to prepare themselves for a long judicial journey.