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Motorhomes based on the Fiat Ducato may be affected by diesel tampering
Photo: Sebastian Geisler / imago images
Three months after the diesel raid on Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and Iveco, hundreds of vehicle owners have filed charges against the two manufacturers.
Around 300 have now been submitted, and more were regularly received, the Frankfurt am Main public prosecutor told the German Press Agency.
About 90 percent of the cases are about mobile homes.
The investigation concerns the suspicion of fraud with so-called shutdown devices in the exhaust gas cleaning system.
In July, investigators searched the headquarters of FCA Germany in Frankfurt am Main, Iveco in Ulm and other properties in Italy and Switzerland.
Nine suspects are still in focus, three people in charge from Fiat Chrysler and six from sister company CNH Industrial, to which the commercial vehicle brand Iveco belongs.
The investigators had called on buyers of vehicles with possibly manipulated engines to report to the police and submit contracts and certificates.
The diesel engines 1.3 liter Multijet, 1.3 liter 16V Multijet, 1.6 liter Multijet, 1.6 liter, 2.0 liter Multijet, 2.0 liter, 2.2 liter Multijet II, 2.3 are suspected Liters, 2.3 liters Multijet, 3.0 liters from the years 2014 to 2019. The two companies have emphasized that they will cooperate with the authorities.
Alfa Romeo and Jeep affected - but also many campers
In addition to Fiat and Iveco vehicles, there are also the FCA brands Alfa Romeo and Jeep.
The public prosecutor's office had not announced which models should be specifically affected.
The engines mentioned with the emission standards Euro 5 and 6 are used in a number of Fiat, Jeep and Alfa Romeo vehicles from small cars to vans and also in Iveco models.
According to the investigators, more than 200,000 vehicles are affected in Germany, including many special types such as mobile homes.
As with other manufacturers, there should be a technology in all of them that ensures that the limit values for nitrogen dioxide emissions are only adhered to on the test bench.
"Vehicles with such a defeat device cannot be approved on the common market, which is why customers are threatened with driving bans or shutdowns," the public prosecutor explained at the time.
According to the latest information from the authority, reports that have nothing to do with the investigation have been received since then.
It is not yet clear what the consequences will be.
In the case of advertisements from used car buyers, for example, it cannot be proven that the dealer knew about the alleged manipulation.
In addition, these purchases did not lead to an enrichment of the FCA group.
Other cases, on the other hand, concern diesel engines from US production, which are in the Lancia Voyager and Jeep Wrangler models and for which there is currently no sufficiently reliable knowledge for a defeat device.
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mhe / dpa