Reports a few BMW cars exceed pollution limits

Auto Bild claimed BMW’s X3 diesel model violated EU emissions standards during a road test done by the worldwide Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).

The emissions controversy erupted last week when US regulators revealed that Volkswagen had sought to evade emissions standards compliance by programming some of its diesel cars to switch on emissions controls only when they were being tested.

Compared to Volkswagen’s Passat, it is much higher while the Jetta beats BMW’s X3 in emission violation because it emits 22 times higher nitrogen oxide than permitted by the government bodies. “All emissions systems remain active outside the testing cycles”.

On Thursday Nordea Asset Management announced that its fund managers were banned from buying VW’s stocks and bonds, saying that “the scandal is unacceptable from an investment point of view”.

Mr Dobrindt said random tests would be conducted on cars made by manufacturers other than VW.

For virtually every new model that comes onto the market, the gap between test and real-world performance leaps.

BMW officials denied any wrongdoing and said there is no part of the X3 system that would differentiate road and laboratory testing. It also stated that ICCT recently published a release in which it mentioned the BMW X5 and 13 other vehicles were letting out NOx gases as per the legal requirements. We are contacting the ICCT and asking for clarification of the test they carried out.

Investors rushed out of the premium German carmaker on fears that BMW might also use deception software to manipulate regular emissions test, similar to the devices that Germany’s Volkswagen auto maker admitted to have built into its diesel vehicles.

“At the BMW group, there are no specific activities or technical provisions which influence the emissions recorded during the test mode”, stresses the company in a statement. Besides, we work meticulously to ensure that all our vehicles adhere to local testing requirements.

“We support the swift introduction of the new regulations to create clarity for consumers and the industry as quickly as possible”, the company said.

After already falling nearly 10 per cent earlier, the shares were still showing a loss of 6.7 per cent after the company’s denial.