Dieselgate for Suzuki in sight?
The dieselgate that had overwhelmed Volkswagen in 2015 is now in danger of falling on the Japanese Suzuki, also involving Stellantis and Marelli in the searches. All the details
Japanese car company Suzuki has come under scrutiny by European judicial authorities for allegedly rigged diesel engines with devices that would have made vehicles appear "cleaner" in testing than they actually were in daily use.
The countries involved in the searches are Germany, Italy and Hungary.
THE NEWS
The news, picked up by various news agencies, was given by Eurojust , the European Union Agency for Criminal Judicial Cooperation.
Suzuki, which is headquartered in Germany in Europe, "should be aware that as of 2018 diesel engines have been equipped with the devices to 'beautify' emissions," the agency said.
THE ACCUSATION
The Japanese carmaker, according to Quattroruote , "is accused of commercial fraud for having sold vehicles to customers that allegedly did not meet the requirements for Euro 6 homologation. According to the prosecutor's office, the alleged illegal devices reduce or they completely deactivate the emission control mechanisms in numerous conditions of daily use, resulting in nitrogen oxide levels exceeding the legal limits ".
THE COUNTRIES INVOLVED
The searches were carried out in Germany, Italy and Hungary and are aimed at collecting documents, data and correspondence to verify whether unauthorized devices were actually used to "trick" the emissions data of diesel engines fitted to some Suzuki models.
The information collected will be subsequently analyzed by the judicial authorities concerned.
WHAT ITALY HAS TO DO
The devices finished under the lens of the authorities were built in Italy and assembled in Hungary. In particular, FCA Italia supplied Suzuki with the engines and Marelli the control unit that manages the engine emissions.
SEATS SEARCHED
The searches concerned the commercial offices of Bensheim and Heidelberg in Germany, Corbetta (Milan) in Italy and Esztergom in Hungary.
In our country, searches are carried out by the Turin police and by the Turin and Milan Guardia di Finanza.
In addition to the Public Prosecutor's Office in Frankfurt, the Hessian police are involved in the investigation for Germany and the Komárom-Esztergom county police for Hungary.
THE COMMENT OF STELLANTIS
“Fca Italia – commented Stellantis – was informed of a request to provide information and documents in relation to further investigations by the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the use of presumably inadmissible emission control software in diesel engines supplied to Suzuki. This follows the investigation into similar allegations conducted in 2020. The company will continue to cooperate fully in the investigation into the matter. "
THE COMMENT OF MARELLI
Marelli, as reported by Ansa , does not comment in detail, but confirms “full cooperation with the authorities in their investigation. Marelli is convinced that it has always operated in full compliance with the regulations ".
Already in 2016, the company had replied to a questionnaire on the EU emissions system, verifying that all activities were compliant with the rules.
THE MODELS INVOLVED
Investigators, according to Quattroruote , suspect that Suzuki has sold more than 22 thousand models of SX4 S-Cross, Swift and Vitara with diesel engines (DDiS Euro 6 1.3, 1.6 and 2 liters of displacement) equipped with illegal systems for handling exhaust gases.
THE BACKGROUND OF SUZUKI AND STELLANTIS
In 2018, Repubblica recalls, the Tokyo Ministry of Transport had made it known that Suzuki had admitted to having falsified the pollution control tests of some vehicles.
And according to what was written by Reuters , Stellantis – born at the beginning of 2021 from the merger between Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and the French PSA – said that last year it had already been put under investigation by a court in Paris for allegations of fraud. to consumers related to the sale of diesel vehicles between 2014 and 2017.
THE VOLKSWAGEN DIESELGATE
The use of illegal software had already led to the Dieselgate scandal involving Volkswagen in 2015, the largest case of its kind to date.
Volkswagen admitted that it used the software to hack diesel engine tests and then sold 11 million affected vehicles worldwide.
So far, Reuters reports, the scandal has cost the German automaker more than $ 40 billion in vehicle retrofits, fines and provisions for future legal claims.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/dieselgate-per-suzuki-in-vista/ on Thu, 28 Apr 2022 13:16:29 +0000.