Mercedes-Benz recalls three million diesel cars in Europe

Mercedes Benz is recalling more than 3 million diesel vehicles sold in Europe by the brand, a campaign that adds to the one already announced by the company at the beginning of the year for its small-displacement engines (of Renault origin) and for the Class V models. This is a voluntary service action suggested by the manufacturer of the star, which entails no cost whatsoever for the customer and consists of checking the vehicle’s emissions in order to carry out, if necessary, the corresponding technical corrections needed to reduce its NOx emissions.

“The public debate on diesel engines is creating uncertainty,” says Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes, “which is why we have decided to take additional measures to reassure diesel vehicle drivers and to strengthen confidence in diesel technology.”

Mercedes Benz is launching this campaign on its own initiative and with the aim of reassuring the brand’s customers regarding their car’s emissions, a campaign in which it will invest close to 220 million euros at no additional cost to customers. Although the German authorities responsible for monitoring this type of case have found no anomalies, nor any illegal software alterations or tricks similar to those used in the dieselgate scandal, Mercedes Benz has had to defend itself in recent times against accusations from various media outlets (mainly American, with Automotive News among them) that point to possible manipulation of the declared emissions of some of its diesel engines, both Euro V and Euro VI.

The German authorities have for some time been urging car manufacturers, especially domestic ones, to voluntarily carry out service recalls of their vehicles in order to make technical corrections that help reduce their NOx emissions.

Furthermore, Mercedes-Benz is pressing ahead to bring forward the launch of its new generation of diesel engines, in which it has already invested more than 3,000 million euros. The first unit of this new generation of diesel powertrains is the new OM 654 engine, already fitted to the new E-Class.