PSA, in Dieselgate Sequel’s Spotlight, Cries Foul

PARIS – A consumer watchdog’s investigation into alleged diesel emissions-testing fraud by PSA Group is going before French prosecutors, prompting an angry response from the automaker.

The French consumer authority, DGGCRF, launched its investigation with raids on PSA offices in April 2016.

The agency says it will share its findings with prosecutors who last month opened a separate investigation into rival French automaker Renault over alleged emissions cheating using so-called defeat devices central to the Dieselgate cheating scandal that has engulfed Volkswagen.

 “PSA would like to emphasize that the Group complies with the regulations in force in all countries where it operates,” the automaker says in a statement released after the consumer agency’s announcement.

“The Group’s vehicles have never been equipped with software or devices to detect a compliance test (or) activate a pollutant-treatment device that would be inactive in customer use. The results of the tests carried out by different European and French authorities have confirmed that the Group’s vehicles comply with regulatory test criteria.”

The watchdog’s investigation centers on tests of PSA diesel engines under Euro 5 emissions standards in place between 2009 and 2015 and since made stricter. PSA claims tests carried out by IFPEN (an environmental, energy and transport R&D enterprise jointly financed by industry and the government) did not reveal any anomaly.

“The Group’s engines are developed with a priority focus on reducing nitrogen-oxide emissions in urban environments, while offering the best (nitrogen-oxide/carbon-dioxide) balance under extra-urban conditions over a wide temperature range and without any discontinuity.

“In addition, PSA Group has made the commitment, three years earlier than required, to comply with the real-driving-emissions type-approval requirement that will come into effect in 2020…(and) replace the current procedure, which is not representative of customer use. “Lastly, PSA is the only carmaker in the world to have initiated a process of total transparency on the consumption and CO2 emissions of its models in real use.”

“We are surprised by the announcement, particularly as PSA is proud to be the forerunner in the development of pollution-reducing technologies,” Gilles Le Borgne, PSA executive vice president-R&D, says. “As France’s leading car exporter, PSA will therefore fight to defend its technologies, its know-how and its competitiveness in support of French industry.”