Daimler has been ordered by the German transport ministry to recall hundreds of thousands of vehicles.
According to Reuters, Daimler has been told 774,000 Mercedes-Benzes contained emissions-defeating software devices in European diesel-powered vehicles.
Vito and C-Classes, including the GLC SUV, are reported by the ministry to have the defeat software and 238,000 are to be recalled, as they are only able to recall vehicles inside Germany.
Daimler has also told the ministry it has since found a technical update for the software, and has recently launched the new A-Class using the RDE (Real-world Driving Emissions) standardised reporting method, which will be included on all Mercedes-Benzes by September.
“By September 2018, more than 30 of the currently available models and more than 200 variants are to be changed over to Euro 6d-TEMP Norm (RDE Stage 1) – a full year before this is mandatory for all vehicles,” the company says in a statement.
It says its vehicles will average nitrogen-oxide (NOx) emissions at levels between 40 and 60 milligrams per kilometre, as tested “over many thousands of kilometres of driving on the road under the conditions of the Real Driving Emissions (RDE) measuring method.”
Daimler says those emissions are significantly below the RDE limit of 168 milligrams per kilometre.
“Mercedes-Benz’s new generation of engines already demonstrated two years ago, how the NOx-challenge in diesel cars can be solved technically. We are fully committed to modern diesel engines as part of the drive mix for the future,” Daimler AG’s head of group research and development, Ola Källenius says.
Daimler says it is cooperating with authorities, including in the US where the California Air Resources Board is investigating the reports.
