Renault Responds – ‘No Emissions Cover-Up’ – Following Visit By Authorities

According to a statement by Segolene Royal, the country’s Environment Minister, Renault’s filtering system on certain vehicles failed when temperatures dipped below 17 degrees Celsius or 63 degrees Fahrenheit.

This is despite all of the vehicles tested by the consumer organisation complying with the same legal limits when using current EU regulatory New European Drive Cycle (NEDC) emissions testing, which takes place in laboratories rather than by driving the vehicles on the road.

The recall will affect models that are powered by the 1.5 liters DCi 110 diesel engine. Based on estimates, it is likely that the job to correct the issue with these filters will require a half day of work per engine. The existing test was never created to reflect the infinite variations of “real world” driving’.

The news comes after Renault recalled 15,000 new diesel cars yesterday, 260 of which are in the United Kingdom, because their emission levels are too high.

The company later revealed that prior to the raids, the UTAC (the French homologation authority) had already been testing Renault vehicles, with four of 25 models being examined before the new year. These changes are applicable to vehicles equipped with the latest Euro 6-compliant diesel engines that will generate fewer NOx emissions after the update.

The scrutiny that Renault was under along with the launch of an antifraud investigation by the government on its emission has dealt a severe blow to the company’s stocks, which plummeted by about 15%.

No customer cars are said to be affected – the recall is only of cars that are now unsold across Europe.

Gaspar Gascon Abellan, Renault’s director of engineering said that Renault had discovered “a calibration error” in the emissions-cutting system, which meant nitrogen oxides and sulphur were not being properly eliminated.

In an interview with reporters at Renault’s headquarters, company chief competitive officer, Thierry Bollore, said “We are not cheating, we are meeting the norms, and we are not trying to trick the consumer”.