Reports have emerged that an investigation undertaken by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has concluded that the Volkswagen Group was the only car manufacturer to use defeat devices to cheat its way past emissions testing for diesel-engined cars.
Although the final report is scheduled for publication at the end of April 2016, the German business newspaper Handelsblatt has learnt about the investigation’s conclusions from one or more anonymous sources from within the organisation. The KBA kicked off investigations in September last year, shortly after Volkswagen admitted to US authorities that many of their diesel engined vehicles were fitted with defeat devices designed to detect when an emissions test might be taking place, and lower the emissions produced for the duration of the test in order to comply with emissions regulations. A total of 11 million vehicles around the world were fitted with the device.
The KBA examined the real-world and laboratory emissions of 60 diesel vehicles sold in Germany, from a variety of manufacturers. According to Handelsblatt‘s sources, the KBA did find some “strange irregularities” in the emissions from diesel cars from some other manufacturers, but nonetheless they were were still operating within legal limits. After almost 6 months of testing, the KBA concluded that only Volkswagen group vehicles used defeat devices to cheat emissions tests.
Expect to see the full results published at the end of the month.