Federal Motor Transport Authority relieves Daimler

The Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) sees no evidence of previously unknown defeat devices at Mercedes-Benz in an expert report submitted by Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH). "In the report, eight defeat devices of the relevant model with the OM 642 diesel engine are named. We are familiar with them," said a KBA spokesman. They have already been checked and found to be "not inadmissible". The DUH had previously presented an expert opinion in which it sees new evidence of the involvement of the car maker Daimler with its master brand Mercedes-Benz in the diesel scandal. The main features of the report had already been published the day before. The automotive software expert Felix Domke documented in the report on behalf of a US law firm "a total of eight previously unknown defeat devices in a Mercedes-Benz E-Class with Euro 6 diesel", according to the DUH. These are "clearly illegal" and lead to nitrogen oxide emissions on the road well above the legally stipulated limit value, according to the environmental aid agency. A spokesman for Daimler, on the other hand, had announced that the "parameterizations described" were already known and "should not be assessed as inadmissible disconnection devices". Since the diesel issue became known, all vehicle models on the market with diesel units from different manufacturers have been examined, according to the KBA. The legally inadmissible defeat devices were named and dealt with in the context of product recalls. The vehicle model mentioned was initially part of a recall. However, the software programming is different from other models that are currently being recalled. "Therefore, this model was not inadmissible."