Volkswagen not alone in flouting pollution limits

Berlin, June 10: One diesel car tested by the Ger man gover nment emitted more than 12 times as much poisonous nitrogen oxide as allowed. Another was five times over the limit, and yet another six times over.

The cars were not produced by Volkswagen, the company at the center of a widespread emissions scandal. They were a Jeep, a General Motors sedan and a Mercedes-Benz.

A growing stack of recent government and private studies has made increasingly clear that Volkswagen was hardly the only company to flout pollution limits. While Volkswagen illegally manipulated test results, the other carmakers in Europe just took advantage of a loophole that allows them to throttle down emissions controls whenever there is risk of engine damage — which in some cases is nearly all the time.

Such information has awakened Europeans to the real environmental cost of diesel, with far-reaching reputational and financial consequences for the auto industry. Companies are now on the defensive in their core diesel market of Europe, as environmental groups push for tougher regulations, authorities haul auto executives before hearings and politicians call for an end to favorable fuel taxes.

“It’s just a question of who’s cheating legally and who’s cheating illegally,” said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen who follows the auto industry. “They’re all bad.”

In an attempt at damage control, the German government this week submitted a proposal to European Union transport ministers that would narrow, though not close, the loophole that allows carmakers to deactivate emissions equipment to protect the engine. NYT