Germany hits Mercedes with mass diesel recall

Germany ordered Monday the recall of some 774,000 vehicles from Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler across Europe, citing illegal "defeat devices" designed to conceal high levels of harmful emissions from regulators' tests.

"The federal government will order an immediate official recall because of illegal defeat devices," Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer said in a statement.

The move mostly affects Vito vans and diesel-powered versions of GLC 4x4s and C-class sedans, Scheuer added.

Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche was summoned Monday for crunch talks with Scheuer over emissions irregularities in the firm's vehicles.

"Daimler says the applications in the motor control software the federal government has found fault with will be removed at the greatest possible speed and in cooperative transparency with the authorities," Scheuer said.

A Daimler spokesman confirmed the recall to AFP, adding "legal questions will be cleared up in the appeal procedure" against the transport ministry decision.

- 'Diesel quagmire' -

So-called defeat devices were at the heart of Volkswagen's "dieselgate" scandal, in which the world's largest carmaker admitted in September 2015 to installing them in 11 million vehicles worldwide.

Vehicles kept to legal emissions limits for harmful substances like nitrogen oxides (NOx) during lab tests, only to exceed them as much as 40 times in on-road driving.

The scandal has so far cost the world's largest carmaker over 25 billion euros ($29.5 billion) in fines, buybacks and compensation, and senior executives are under investigation over their suspected roles in the cheating.

In the years since 2015, other German carmakers have also been forced to recall vehicles to fix manipulated software, although none has so far admitted to mass cheating as Volkswagen did.

Recent weeks have seen Germany's KBA vehicle licensing authority hit Volkswagen subsidiaries Audi and Porsche with mass recall orders over their engine control software, as well as a smaller batch of cars from rival BMW.

Prosecutors raided Munich-based BMW in March, saying their investigation was "only just getting started" after gathering evidence, and announced on Monday they suspect Audi chief executive Rupert Stadler of fraud.

"The whole European car industry is still stuck in this diesel quagmire, and everything that's been done so far has done nothing to set it free," auto industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the CAR research centre told AFP -- pointing also to Italian and French automakers.

The German government should approve hardware, rather than software alterations to manipulated vehicles to produce "an honest solution" to excessive emissions, Dudenhoeffer charged.

Otherwise, "car firms will continue to stumble into the future and watch as their reputations are destroyed," he warned.

"The pressure is rising, but it's of course up to the politicians" how much progress is made, Dudenhoeffer said.

For their part, German firms have announced dozens of new electric and hybrid models for the coming years in a bid to bring down emissions of both greenhouse gas CO2 -- the original reason they turned to diesel -- and of harmful NOx.

But they continue to bet on the internal combustion engine and diesel into the future, with Daimler and component maker Bosch recently touting upgraded diesel technology they say solves the motors' exhaust issues.

German prosecutors raid Audi boss over diesel cheating
Frankfurt Am Main (AFP) June 11, 2018 - German prosecutors said Monday they had raided the home of Rupert Stadler, chief executive of Volkswagen subsidiary Audi, over suspicion of fraud related to diesel emissions cheating by the firm.

"Since May 30 the chief executive of Audi Professor Rupert Stadler and another member of the current executive board have been regarded as suspects," prosecutors in Bavarian capital Munich said in a statement.

"They are each accused of fraud as well as indirectly falsifying certifications. This relates to bringing diesel vehicles fitted with manipulative emissions management software into circulation on the European market."

The homes of both Stadler and the other board member had been searched Monday for evidence, they added.

An Audi spokesman told AFP the firm was cooperating with prosecutors' investigation.

The latest probe follows a mass recall ordered by German authorities earlier this month of some 60,000 Audi A6 and A7 cars across Europe to remove illegal emissions control software, while prosecutors raided offices and the homes of some workers in February, March and April.

Audi's former head of engine development was also taken into custody in September 2017.

Volkswagen admitted in September 2015 to manipulating 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide with software designed to reduce harmful emissions during testing but that allowed them to rise to many times legal limits in real driving conditions.

Since then investigators have been trying to unravel who was responsible for the installation of such so-called "defeat devices".

VW chief executive at the time of the diesel scandal Martin Winterkorn stepped down soon after the news broke, while successor Matthias Mueller was hastily replaced earlier this year.

Both are suspected of knowing earlier than they have so far admitted about the cheating, meaning they failed in their duty to inform investors in the car giant about the financial risks.

US prosecutors also indicted Winterkorn last month, saying he knew of the company's emissions cheating as early as May 2014 but decided to continue.

Present boss Herbert Diess has been accused of knowing about diesel cheating before it became public -- an allegation rejected by the firm last month.

The scandal dubbed "dieselgate" has so far cost the world's largest carmaker more than 25 billion euros in buybacks, fines and compensation, and the company remains mired in legal woes at home and abroad.

Other carmakers have also been forced to recall vehicles to fix manipulated software, although none has so far admitted to mass cheating as Volkswagen did.

Dieter Zetsche, chief executive of Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler, is set for a grilling by German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer Monday over irregularities in a number of the Stuttgart-based firm's models.

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