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VW California Beach based on the Volkswagen T5
Photo: imago stock & people
Volkswagen is offering grants to owners of California-range RVs with older diesel engines if they retrofit supplementary catalytic converters - as soon as they are available.
It is about T5 variants of the light VW commercial vehicles in the motorhome equipment that are still on the road with Euro 5 drive.
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In Germany, these are currently around 22,000 copies from the years of construction 2009 to 2015, said a company spokesman.
In 2020, Deutsche Umwelthilfe determined that a diesel T5 California model exceeded the nitrogen oxide limit many times over.
The company and its owners have been arguing in courts for years as to whether it is legal for the car to partially switch off the emission control system in a certain temperature range - while it works well under test bench conditions.
Customers can expect up to 3000 euros
So far, after the diesel crisis, VW has participated in a federal government program that financially supports retrofitting of cars.
Owners who live in "intensive cities" with poor air quality or in their immediate vicinity are eligible to participate.
"If the technical possibility arises, we will do the same for mobile homes," it was now said.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung had previously reported on it.
According to Volkswagen, customers could also expect up to 3000 euros.
Solutions are currently being developed for the use of a so-called SCR catalytic converter with urea injection in the T5 models in question, explained VW.
These systems reduce the level of harmful nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas jet.
ene / dpa