“Gabriel: Germany was not a brakeman”

The German government might not have been persistent enough in the past in questioning emissions data from German carmakers, economy minister Sigmar Gabriel said in a hearing before a Bundestag committee of inquiry. “We have to ask ourselves whether we were sceptical and persistent enough to prevent what has caused such big problems,” Gabriel said according to an article in Süddeutsche Zeitung. He denied having heard of illegal defeat devices before the emissions scandal was uncovered. But he said that during his time as environment minister (2005-09) his ministry knew about diverging emissions data in field and laboratory tests.

Read the Bundestag press release in German here and the Süddeutsche article in German here.

For background read the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.