Fiat under scrutiny for falsifying emission tests

Volkswagen recently came under fire from the U.S authorities for misappropriating emissions from their diesel cars sold in the country. The company is still going through the repercussions of the scandal, the dust still hasn’t settled and another European automotive giant has come under the scanner. This time around it’s Fiat who have been taken to task by German authorities for allegedly cheating the emissions test. Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) found that the NOx reduction system on Fiat vehicles switched off after just 22 minutes of starting the car. The laboratory emission tests typically run for twenty minutes. 

According to reports, it was the test on a Fiat 500X that revealed this discrepancy. Fiat has so far declined to comment. It is also believed that it was Bosch who informed the German investigators that Fiat was using a system that either stopped or reduced the emission effectiveness of the NOx reduction system in their cars. While no official statement has been issued from the German authorities, German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt did single out Fiat while announcing results of numerous diesel cars. He also assured that more Fiat models will be going under the scanner. 

If you think that this is horrible, it gets even murkier. Fiat isn’t the only one after VW who rigged their emission tests. Just about a week ago, Mitsubishi also admitted to misappropriating their fuel economy data. Though initially they claimed only four models all of the smaller Kei family were affected but according to reports, other models are probably affected as well. A total of 6,25,000 cars are affected out of which 4,68,000 are Nissan cars whereas 1,57,000 are Mitsubishis. The Japanese car maker admitted to rigging fuel tests to attain better results. It isn’t clear if any models produced overseas have also been affected.  In addition, Peugeot’s offices were also raided by investigators and Mercedes-Benz too has launched an investigation into its US models looking for emission discrepancies. 

In the wake of all this havoc Dobrindt has demanded 17 manufacturers to voluntarily recall cars that emit excessive amounts of NOx. While most cars sdhere to the norms German authorities want manufacturers to act and so far only Audi, Mercedes, Opel, Porsche and Volkswagen have initiated action. 

All these scandals will not only hurt the companies’ images but will also make customers lose their trust in the car companies. All of these scandals spiraled out of control after the VW dieselgate scandal. And it was thanks to that we got to know to what lengths manufacturers are willing to go to keep their sales numbers rolling. We agree that the competition is tough and the emission norms even more so but rigging tests is definitely the wrong approach to take. How can we trust our lives to companies who agree to commit fraud without batting an eyelid? And this also begs another question what else are they hiding?