Carmakers so far retrofitted software of 2.5 million manipulated cars in Germany

Germany’s carmakers have retrofitted the software of about 2.5 million out of a total of 5.3 million diesel cars eligible for a retrofitting to lower their emissions, Handelsblatt reports. The country’s largest carmaker, Volkswagen, has carried out over 90 percent of its 2.4 million announced retrofittings, the article says. At the German diesel summit in August 2017, the carmakers had agreed to retrofit the over-5 million manipulated diesel cars with emissions standard Euro 5 and 6 to reduce their average nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by up to 30 percent. According to the German transport ministry (BMVI), there are currently no sanction mechanisms in place if the carmakers fail to comply. The environment ministry (BMUB) says the completed software updates are insufficient to bring emissions levels down to limit values, insisting that hardware updates have to be carried out at the carmakers’ expense.

Read the article in German here.

Find background in the CLEW factsheet "Dieselgate" - a timeline of Germany's car emissions fraud scandal and in the CLEW article Why the German diesel summit matters for climate and energy.