Mercedes And GM Called In To Explain Why Their Vehicles Are Failing French Emissions Standards

This fits the old saying "Make something happen and five more things will happen." Governments around the world have discovered a new scam to fill their coffers with what they will claim is corporate ill gotten gains! The global ripple effect of the VW scandal throughout the industry has only just begun. As a politician once said "Never let a good crisis go to waste."

Misunderstood subject: Note to readers -- Mercedes and GM were only SUMMONED to appear before a panel at the end of January to face allegations of emissions rigging. They didn't call (e,g., make a phone call) to explain the differences between their lab tests and their much higher real-world emissions, in case you (mis)understood the subject to mean that.

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That aside, in my mind, the question of using a "cheat device" to pass emissions tests is a red herring. It diverts our attention from the bigger issue at hand: Did a vehicle pass the in-lab emissions test (regardless if it cheated or not), while emitting much higher levels of dangerous emissions in real world conditions? If the answer is "yes," then it really doesn't matter whether the vehicle qualifies as having an emissions test "cheat device" or not. What matters, the *REAL* issue, is that you gamed the system; your sole intention as a manufacturer was to pass the emissions test (only) so you could sell your products and make profit; it wasn't to reduce your vehicle's emissions in real world use to make it safer and cleaner for the environment and the people, animals, and plants that live in it. This is an ethical breach, and one of deliberately misleading consumers.

An equally important question is whether gaming the system by having much higher real-world emissions is against the law. If the law only states that you must pass an emissions test in a specified manner, and you did that, then you did not break the law. It's just a weak law that does not support its stated desired outcome of producing vehicles with lower emissions, and it does not contribute to its namesake, clean air (e.g., The Clean Air Act).

Although VW has been proven to use an illegal emissions "cheat device", and so far they appear to be the only company that has, it appears they are not alone in creating vehicles that meet legal emission levels only while being tested in the lab, and they produce many times the legal emissions levels while in real world use. And that's not a good thing.

Steve, the law is the overriding factor. We are a nation of laws and after a law is passed the executive departments are responsible to enforce that law. The EPA chose a test methodology that they said if passed meant a manufacturer was following the law. Any firm that passes WITHOUT A CHEAT DEVICE is in compliance. PERIOD. That is how the systems work, be it the FDA overseeing medical device and drug firms, the agriculture dept overseeing the food chain, etc. etc. Meet the test, pass the inspection, etc. a firm is in compliance. What you seem to be proposing is chaos with everybody defining how they pass.
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Vette71: If you reread my post, you will notice that I acknowledge the law. If the law states (in effect, and paraphrased by me) "A vehicle must emit less than specified levels of emissions while being tested in an in-lab test, using a specific methodology, and it cannot use a 'defeat device'", and the law makes no mention of real world emissions, then yes, VW is guilty ONLY of using a defeat device, and not because their emissions are up to 40x lab-legal levels when the vehicle is used in real world conditions. I am not familiar enough with the applicable laws to know if that's the case, but I acknowledge that it appears to be so!

Assuming this is in fact an accurate representation of the applicable laws, then VW's sole obligation (aside from paying fines and penalties, and repairing faulty vehicles), is to pass the emissions test without a defeat device, and it's perfectly legal to have 40x (or more) higher than defined lab-legal emissions levels when operating outside of the lab. That may indeed be the law. If it is, then I think it's a stupid and useless law, but I acknowledge it is the law, none the less. So car makers, go ahead and pollute as much as you want on the roads; the important thing is that you pass the in-lab emission test without a defeat device.


> What you seem to be proposing is chaos with everybody defining how they pass.

Nope. What I assert is if the laws are as described above, then they are useful only for getting good emissions numbers in a specific in-lab test, and they're 100% useless for managing emissions while vehicles operate in the real world. That's huge! The simple answer is to revise the laws to use and entirely different testing methodology to measure actual tailpipe emissions while the vehicle operates under conditions that resemble real-world use. Yeah, some folks will argue that's impossible (everything's impossible...until someone does it).

The reason the Mercedes and GM diesels didn't pass the French emissions test is because

(a) Renault diesels really did fail the Eurozone emissions test likely in the same way as VW's, with likely cheat software - and the French government wants to get even.

(b) The French emissions testers were chain smoking in the exam room and the thick cloud of second-hand cigarette smoke tainted the test results.

Screw the French! They are a country run by idiots. Let's import terrorists and then be baffled that they attacked. That's how France rolls.

To the idiots in France, if you're dumb enough to make fun of a drowned 2 year old refugee you deserve to be destroyed- it's called Karma