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 by Staff Writers Frankfurt Am Main (AFP) Oct 15, 2018
French-owned carmaker Opel became the latest household name of the German auto industry to find itself in the spotlight over diesel emissions as authorities raided two factories and filed rigging charges against the company. Federal transport authority KBA accused Opel of "selling cars with manipulated exhaust control software", senior prosecutor Nadja Niesen told AFP. She added that across Europe, around 95,000 cars were under suspicion. For its part, Opel acknowledged in a statement there were "preliminary proceedings on emissions" with searches at its factories in Ruesselsheim and Kaiserslautern. It added that it was "fully cooperating with the authorities" and "reaffirms that its vehicles comply with the applicable regulations". Tracing its roots back more than 150 years, Opel was bought last year along with British subsidiary Vauxhall by Peugeot maker PSA after decades under US-based General Motors. It was until recently one of the few corners of the mighty German auto industry relatively untouched by "dieselgate". The scandal followed Volkswagen's 2015 admission to fitting 11 million cars worldwide with software -- so-called "defeat devices" -- to make cars appear less polluting in lab tests than in real on-road driving. The transport ministry in Berlin announced in July that it would question Opel relating to three models meeting the latest "Euro 6" emissions standards. In a statement Monday, ministry officials said they would soon issue an official recall for the models -- the Cascada, Insignia and Zafira -- which it discovered were fitted with a defeat device. Opel had managed to "constantly delay the recall hearing with technical arguments," they added. The company issued a second statement on Monday saying that more than 22,000 of the cars had been "updated in the course of (a) voluntary service action", leaving fewer than 9,200 subject to a recall. The ministry further said that Opel had been slow to carry out software updates it ordered to fix four defeat devices found in older vehicles at the end of 2015. Opel insisted that it had "made every effort to implement the service updates promptly," adding that it could not start earlier "because the required approval of the KBA had not been issued earlier." - In grip of 'dieselgate' - German car industry stalwarts like BMW and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler have long since become the targets of official probes relating to the ever-widening "dieselgate" scandal that began with VW. In Europe, car firms have escaped the swingeing costs for fines, buybacks and compensation -- 27 billion euros ($31 billion) so far -- that the Wolfsburg-based group has paid out in the United States. But managers and executives at the sprawling Volkswagen empire -- up to and including former chief executive Martin Winterkorn -- have been targeted with court cases for withholding information from investors, fraud and false advertising over the emissions affair. At subsidiary Audi, former chief executive Rupert Stadler recently quit his post after months spent in custody, which prosecutors said was necessary to stop him influencing witnesses. The auto industry as a whole is fighting a rearguard action against tougher European regulations on harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) and other emissions from diesel vehicles, as well as outright bans for older models from some German city centres. ys/tgb/gd/bmm
BMW plans to take control of China joint venture Beijing (AFP) Oct 11, 2018 German luxury carmaker BMW announced Thursday a plan to take control of its China joint-venture, the first foreign automaker to take advantage of Beijing's new ownership rules for the sector. BMW will acquire a further 25 percent stake in the venture with Brilliance China Automotive for 3.6 billion euros ($4.2 billion), the company said, bringing its stake to 75 percent by 2022 when the deal closes. Foreign automakers have long been restricted to holding no more than a 50 percent stake in their ... read more
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