Not only Renault and Volkswagen, but other car giants such as Audi, Opel, BMW and Mercedes, have been caught for diesel engine fraud.

Carlos Ghosn, then all-powerful of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, was summoned to testify last month before the French court in two cases. The first, referring to emissions fraud. The second concerns tax fraud. But not only the French automaker circumvented the system: the multinational Volkwagen and other giants including Audi, Renault, Opel, BMW and Mercedes, were also caught involved in the scandal of fraud in diesel engine emissions.

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Even in Brazil there was fraud in the control of emissions. In 1995, Fiat was fined by Cetesb (Environmental Company of the State of São Paulo) for the emissions of the Uno Mille Electronic, the car exceeded the legal limits, despite passing the homologation tests.

Fiat and its grotesque trickery to circumvent the emissions control of its vehicles

In a very grotesque way, the automaker Fiat deceived the emissions results of its vehicles at the Betim factory, as follows: it connected a switch in the hood opening system, because the tests were carried out with it open. It may seem like a joke, but when the hood was lifted, a switch immediately modified the engine setting to reduce the volume of emissions.

The multinational Volkswagen chose to circumvent the system in a more sophisticated way: knowing that the simulated measurement procedure for engine gas emissions was standardized, the German automaker installed a program (software) in the electronic center that analyzed the sequence of engine operation.

The tests were carried out as follows: the engine was running (with the car stationary, on a dynamometer in a laboratory) as if it were on a previously determined route to be followed: one sprint and so many seconds in first gear, then so many more in second gear. A stop for a few seconds simulating a red light and so on. That is, knowing this, the program realized that the car was being subjected to tests, and changed the engine tuning parameters. All this ruse to escape the inevitable reduction in the car's performance as long as it was correctly framed within the gas emission limits.

Scandal involving Renault diesel engines in 2017

In 2017, it was the turn of the French Renault to do the trick to circumvent the emissions control of the diesel engines of its vehicles.

As mentioned above, Ghosn was summoned in May to testify, but the former boss is confined in Lebanon (after escaping from prison in Japan), French emissaries went to hear him in Beirut. Ghosn's testimony (emissions fraud) was not made public.

But second BORIS FELDMAN, a journalist and engineer with 50 years of experience in the automotive press, who presents the AutoPapo program on radio stations throughout Brazil, reports that, by pure chance, he spoke three years ago (2018) with an engineer who worked at Renault and was part of the diesel engine development team in France.

“He told me that the team was called to a board meeting between 2013 and 2014 and a super-executive compared the emissions test results of Volkswagen's diesel engines with those of Renault,” says Feldman.

According to the engineer, the numbers left no room for doubt: Volkswagen obtained levels of polluting gas emissions many times lower than those of the French. And asked for explanations. Renault's management questioned the team's competence, whether it lacked talent or work. And he expressed his concern. After all, competition between European brands was (always was) extremely fierce.

Still according to Feldman, Renault's engineers responded by claiming that such a low level of emissions would only be possible with a drastic reduction in consumption. But that, for that, only sensibly harming the car's performance. The “big director” asked if they were kidding and gave them a deadline to find a solution.

Renault engineers copy Volkswagen's fraud to keep their jobs

Feldman said that Renault engineers met with the directors again and explained that, according to the research done and reports from colleagues from other factories and from Volkswagen itself, they reached the conclusion proving by a+b – that it is impossible, in technological terms, for a diesel engine to offer such high performance with such a low level of emissions. And they claimed there was only one explanation: test cheating.

According to Feldman, the former Renault engineer told him "that he was surprised by the directors' reaction, as they were not frightened by the revelation: they gave the impression that they already knew about the Volkswagen fraud".

And they just said something like: “We don't care how VW got this result. We want our diesel engines to have identical or very close emissions, without losing performance.”

Between the lines, the engineers of the French automaker realized that, or they would lose their jobs, or they would practice the same “magic” as Volkswagen. So they did. And the end result didn't take long: the scandal came to light in 2017.