"Suspicious" levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions would affect 19 million diesel vehicles on the road in Europe, warned Wednesday the International Council on Clean Transport (ICCT), an environmental NGO. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has recently issued several rulings deeming software on diesel vehicles illegal.

This "defeat device", revealed during Dieselgate in 2015, systematically improves the performance of the gaseous pollutant control system during approval procedures. The NOx filtration system is reduced or deactivated when temperatures are too low and above a certain altitude. Car manufacturers have always maintained that this is necessary to protect the engine.

200 models affected

Of the 53 million diesel cars sold in the EU and the UK between 2009 and 2019, 24 million vehicles produced – 19 million are still on the road, including 3.3 million in France – had "suspicious" emissions compared to the CJEU rulings, according to the ICCT. Sixteen million vehicles even have so-called "extreme" emission levels (three or four times the official limit). These excessive emissions indicate the "likely use" of a prohibited engine calibration strategy. The 19 million suspect vehicles, of 200 models, were sold by many manufacturers under Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards.

The NGOs ClientEarth, France Nature Environnement (FNE) and Consommation Logement Cadre de Vie (CLCV) announced on Wednesday that they had seized the authorities in France, Germany and the United Kingdom for manufacturers to contribute to a fund to reduce pollution from road transport. In preparing this report, ICCT analysed three sources of NOx emission data: laboratory and field test data from government authorities, real-world test data from independent organizations, and an extensive database of remote sensing measurements.

The "thermal windows" technique

"Dieselgate" broke out in September 2015 and destabilized the entire automotive sector. In the rigged engine scandal, Volkswagen has admitted to tampering with 11 million cars to lower than actual emission levels. Several manufacturers such as Fiat-Chrysler and PSA (now Stellantis) and Renault have since been in the crosshairs of justice.



The CJEU on Tuesday issued an important decision on a similar technique, that of "thermal windows", which makes it possible to control the purification of exhaust gases from diesel vehicles according to the outside temperature. Their owners can, according to her, claim damages from the builders.

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  • Diesel
  • Pollution
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  • Economy