French brands under diesel emissions cloud

French investigators are looking into whether PSA Group used similar software cheating devices to that of Volkswagen AG, in nearly two million Peugeot and Citroen cars.

Reuters reports Paris-based PSA Group denies any fraudulent engine software.

PSA share prices subsequently dropped 4.4% to 17.78 euros on Friday.

PSA is the fourth manufacturer to come under scrutiny from French watchdogs as of February, after VW, Renault and Fiat Chrysler.
Engineering heads at PSA confessed at the time to deliberately reducing emissions remedies in the brands’ diesel engines at higher temperatures to improve fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions levels in long-distance rural driving conditions where NOx-related harm would be reduced.

However, local newspaper Le Monde claims an internal document obtained by watchdog DGCCRF (Directorate-General Consumer Affairs & Prevention of Fraud), indicates a discussion around needing to “make the ‘defeat device’ aspect less obvious and visible”.

PSA says it, “denies any fraud and firmly reaffirms the pertinence of its technology decisions.”
The company filed a complaint with the regulator just hours after it was reported it had denied the allegations surrounding the internal document.

“The PSA is indignant at the transmission of information to third parties without having had, in turn, access to the file forwarded by the DGCCRF to the prosecution, which prohibited him until now to argue its case,” PSA Group said in a statement.

In February when the company was put on notice, Le Monde reports PSA’s director of quality and engineering, Gilles Le Borgne also reminded of the company’s ethos on emissions.

“We invented the particle filter,” he said at the time, “We are the only manufacturer in the world to have generalised the selective catalytic reduction system (SCR) throughout our range.”

In the wake of Volkswagen’s ‘dieselgate’ scandal, PSA Group actively engaged its own self-regulatory emissions testing using a portable emissions measuring system (PEMS) to measure real-world diesel emissions across over 30 Peugeot, Citroen and DS vehicles.

“PSA Group recalls that its vehicles have never been equipped with software or devices to detect a compliance test and to activate a pollutant treatment device that would be inactive in customer use,” Le Monde reports the company as saying.