The news of the discovery last year regarding the diesel engines from Volkswagen that emit nearly forty times the amount of allowable toxins into the air took the world by surprise. How could a company and name as trusted as Volkswagen be guilty of such a thing? How could the EPA not know this was happening on the diesel powered vehicles? Since that time there have been many back and forth discussions regarding how to fix this problem as it affects nearly 700,000 vehicles in the US alone, making for a huge embarrassment for both the EPA and Volkswagen.

The fact that the VW engine was set up to detect testing and to only turn on the emissions control systems when in testing mode makes for a scandal that shows not only the dishonesty of Volkswagen but the apparent uselessness of the EPA emissions tests. Not only is the EPA changing their testing procedures to be more random and to do a complete test, but they are retesting every diesel engine on the market to ensure they don’t emit more toxins than is allowable.

In recent news we see Mercedes-Benz is now under scrutiny. The US law firm of Hagens Berman has opened a lawsuit against Daimler regarding the BlueTec diesel engines. This lawsuit claims the engines procures more nitrogen oxide in the real world than they do during testing. The claim by the law firm is there is a defeat device installed on these vehicles to ensure the car passes when on the dynamometer but none of the engines pass the real world test, according to the firm. Unfortunately, because we don’t have the same situation we did with the Volkswagen discovery there is denial and accusations coming from both sides so far as this lawsuit is in its early stages right now.

The claim by Daimler is the accusations are unfounded and they deny using any form of a defeat device on their diesel vehicles. So far the EPA has not formerly opened and official investigation into these accusations, but they have requested information from Daimler regarding the lawsuit. It should come as no surprise if an investigation is eventually opened into these claims made by the Hagens Berman which could result in nothing coming of the findings, or we could have a second diesel scandal on our hands to deal with an a fleet of luxury cars that eventually won’t be able to drive legally on our streets.

In previous news we discussed the possibility there is a device on the Mercedes-Benz engines that shuts down the emissions systems when the outside temperature drops below fifty degrees. If this is part of the lawsuit and Mercedes-Benz needs to change this aspect of their engines, this might become a much easier fix than what Volkswagen is facing. On the other hand, if the BlueTEC engines are actually set up to cheat on the dyno and emit added toxins when driving on the road, we could be in the midst of our second large scandal.