Volkswagen not alone in flouting pollution limits

A growing stack of government and private studies has made increasingly clear that Volkswagen was hardly the only company to flout pollution limits

One diesel car tested by the German government 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 centre 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 car makers 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 defencive 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 favourable 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 car makers to deactivate emissions equipment to protect the engine.

Car makers would be allowed to take advantage of the exception only if they had already deployed the best emissions control technology available.

Environmental activists have complained for years that nitrogen oxide levels in major cities like Rome, Paris or Stuttgart were much higher than they should be because of diesel emissions, with grave effects on human health. Now the activists feel vindicated.

"It's not just fraud - it's physical assault," said Axel Friedrich, a former official in the Umweltbundesamt, the German equivalent of the EPA Friedrich was a co-founder of the International Council on Clean Transportation, which commissioned the tests that exposed Volkswagen's cheating.

Tighter limits on tailpipe emissions and more rigorous testing, being debated in Brussels or in some cases already agreed to, will raise the cost of cars with diesel motors. Diesel vehicles produce far more nitrogen oxides than gasoline cars and require more emissions equipment.

Price-conscious buyers of small cars may decide diesel is no longer worth paying more. If so, companies like Fiat Chrysler, Renault and Volkswagen would suffer most. Profits on small cars already are slim.

"The biggest challenge will be emissions treatment for small cars, simply because of the cost," said Matthias Wissmann, a former German transport minister who is the president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry.

The changing diesel calculus is a potentially significant blow to car makers in Europe. Because of fuel subsidies, diesels account for nearly half of all cars on European roads.

Elsewhere, diesel's overall market share ranges from zero to minuscule.

© 2016 The New York Times News Service