The diesel emissions scandal is far from over for Volkswagen but the auto group might have learned a valuable lesson: never again will it try to deceive customers and regulatory bodies in this manner again. The possibility exists that other car manufacturers might have gone down the same road and even though nothing has been confirmed as yet, it appears that Fiat is being investigated for cheating on diesel emissions test as well.
German regulators are reportedly investigating the emissions of a Fiat model that has a diesel engine over suspicions that the company might have cheated on emissions tests for that model.
Fiat’s alleged cheat appears to be different from Volkswagen’s. The latter was using an algorithm to determine when the cars were being tested for emissions and the so-called defeat devices doctored emissions to pass regulatory requirements.
As far as the Fiat model is concerned, it’s said that the engine parameters on that model are changed for the first 22 minutes that it’s on, and since German emissions tests last about 20 minutes, this is a very convenient window that’s bound to raise a few eyebrows.
Reuters reports that many car makers have been using a warmup mode on their cars when they’re first turned out so as to comply with emissions standards, that can be taken as a defeat device, and it’s likely that this is what’s happening on that Fiat model. It’s not great but it’s surely different from creating advanced software for cheating on a test.
Filed in . Read more about Fiat and Volkswagen. Source: reuters