The first man of Mercedes-Benz Dieter Zetsche critically responded to the Volkswagen affair and stated that such fraud could not happen at Daimler Group. He said that he doesn’t like to critisize comptetitors but in this case he has no choice because this affair affects the whole automotive sector.
Zetsche: affair, which undermines the reputation of German industry and diesel engines
The Chairman of Daimler Dieter Zetsche sharply reacted to the Volkswagen affair with the controversial diesel engines at a reception in Berlin, Germany. As told, this affair undermined the reputation of the German automotive industry as well as diesel engines, in which the Germans invested heavily in recent years.
As you may know, Volkswagen admitted their software fraud with some of its diesel engines. They were using software, which concealed the level of emissions. Now they have to deal with billions of dollars in claims from vehicle owners.
Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, at the world premiere of the new E-Class saloon at the Mercedes-Benz New Year’s Reception 2016 in Detroit.
Zetsche also statted that even if someone had such an idea at Daimler Group, he would be very quickly encountered by his colleagues who would not want to have nothing in common with that kind of thinking. They are simply not doing the job that way. Zetsche emphasized once more that Daimler will remain loyal to the further development of diesel engines technology. At the same time he also called on the European Commission to adopt the rules for inspection of fuel consumption and emissions of harmful substances in the future as soon as possible.
Renault affair at the door?
Will Mr. Zetsche have to take his words back? If I’m not mistaken, Mercedes uses some of the diesel engines from Renault-Nissan corporation. The new Renault 1.6-liter dCi is built in Mercedes A- and B-Class. And a few days ago several Renault production halls were visited by the investigators of the Anti-Fraud Office, interested in the alleged fraud in the field of emissions of diesel engines.
What we know so far about the results of the investigation, Renault diesel engines exceed emission limits, but the investigators did not find any software that would cheat on emissions. Not so bad news but enough bad to cause a major fall in Renault share prices. Their value fell from almost 89 to 68 in one day, that is almost one quarter of the value less.
Image credit: Daimler
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