BMW Shares Fall on Emissions Concerns

The vehicle company was responding to the claims in German trade magazine Auto Bild, which said that nitrogen oxide emissions levels of its BMW X3 xDrive 20d were found to be 11-fold over the official limit during tests by the worldwide Council on Clean Transportation.

BMW said Thursday it hadn’t manipulated test results.

Shares in the top-of-the-range carmaker BMW fell almost 10 percent on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Thursday on a newspaper report that one of its diesel models exceeded European Union emission norms. This came as other European auto makers were enjoying a bout of buying after several sessions of declines. “At the BMW group, there are no specific activities or technical provisions which influence the emissions recorded during the test mode”, said a spokesman.

On Sunday, Volkswagen (XETRA: VOW3-DE) admitted that it had cheated on USA emissions tests and has since issued a profit warning and its CEO Martin Winterkorn has resigned.

The federation doesn’t believe real-world fuel economy and emissions improvements have actually kept up with automakers’ claims, and they say the difference between lab tests and reality is wider than ever. BMW and Daimler have 35 percent and 45 percent, he added, with Peugeot having 40 percent.

“As more details emerge about the extent to which VW, BMW and likely others may have gone to pull the wool over regulators” and of course the public’s eyes, it begs the question of how “polluted’ the industry will turn out to be”.

Auto-bild quoted a BMW spokesperson saying the company did not use “functions to recognize exhaust cycles” and that the car’s exhaust system “remains active throughout the entire cycle”.