Mercedes can’t catch a break: after several years of facing charges of faking diesel car emissions (the infamous Dieselgate scandal), the company is once again under scrutiny for the exact same reason.
According to Reuters, the Federal Transports Administration of Germany (KBA) has found out that the Mercedes-Benz E 350 BlueTec uses its OM642 diesel engine with as many as three software solutions coded to misrepresent the actual emissions produced by the car. The authorities demand that the company eliminate these devices as soon as possible; otherwise, the cars may be banned on public roads and recalled.
The original news report came from an organization called Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), which got ahold of a paper that KBA submitted to Mercedes-Benz on July 7, 2023 and published it online. The document describes three software solutions that let the diesel engine of the Mercedes-Benz E 350 BlueTec circumvent emission test procedures. Two of the tweaks use indirect data such as temperature to detect a test environment and adjust the running of the engine accordingly.
Mercedes says it is currently collaborating with KBA on this matter and has already developed a software update to fix the problem. There is no comment on the document leak.
