No to forced retrofit of diesel cars

Source: Xinhua | 2018-05-09

GERMAN carmakers cannot be forced to retrofit polluting diesel cars unless excessive pollution is caused by deliberate fraud, an expert report being reviewed by Germany’s transport ministry showed yesterday.

The expert opinion supports Germany’s current stance of relying on software upgrades rather than compulsory rebuilds of exhaust management systems on cars with high pollution levels.

So far, no manufacturer other than Volkswagen has admitted to using software to recognize when a car is being put through an emissions test cycle in order to deliberately mask pollution levels under normal driving conditions.

A regulatory clampdown on toxic emissions has, however, revealed several carmakers often exceed pollution limits because they make use of a so-called “thermal window” to legally throttle back emissions filtering systems to protect engines from condensation.

German environmental groups argue upgrades to exhaust systems on polluting cars should be made compulsory, but Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer has said software updates to improve the effectiveness of filtering systems is sufficient.

The expert group was divided on the cost and merit of retrofits.

Retrofitting diesel cars would cost at least 5,000 euros (US$5,935) per vehicle for cars with Euro-5 engines, and the environmental benefits would only become effective in three to four years, some members said.

Others calculated retrofits would cost only about 2,500 euros and recommended them as a viable solution.

A federal court ruled in February that German cities could ban the most heavily polluting diesel cars from their streets.