According to Unearthed, Greenpeace UK’s award-winning journalism project, the European “fix” for vehicles affected by the “dieselgate” scandal is nowhere near as effective as the US version.
As many of you already know,Volkswagen has offered compensation packages, buyback schemes and paid huge amounts of money in fines in the US, yet here in the UK they claim they have not broken any laws and are defiantly defending the legal case against them.
The news that the “fix” is less effective is another concern for European consumers who are still being refused compensation.
- Some European vehicles are seeing a 19-37% change in NOx emissions after having the “fix”
- Some tests have indicated no change at all
- In comparison, US changes have seen a drop in NOx of between 80-95%
These differences are huge – so much so that it has been claimed that the “fix” in Europe is nothing more than a “PR operation with not much improvement in air quality”, a former diesel emissions engineer told Unearthed.
The “fix” is not a fix
We have said before that we believe the “fix” is not a fix at all. In fact, we have already been approached by a number of our clients who have only seen adverse impacts to their vehicles having had what VW previously discovered as “technical measures” applied.
VW also claimed that the “fix” is effective for UK vehicles, whereas it isn’t for US vehicles due to higher standards and engineering differences, which is one of the reasons given as to why they are paying compensation in the US and refusing drivers damages here in the UK.
“EU fixes are minimal and not much of a fix”
Unearthed have also been told by John German of the International Council on Clean Transportation that:
“The fixes in the US will make a huge difference to NOx emissions. By contrast the EU fixes are minimal and not much of a fix.”
Dr James Tate of the University of Leeds also said:
“There are significant differences between the fixes in the US and EU; they are very different solutions. Most of the US fixes require a completely different emissions control system. The EU fix is simply software changes that I don’t expect will have a huge impact on emissions.”
The time to claim is now!
With the High Court set to be giving the formal go-ahead for a GLO in England and Wales anytime soon, we continue to fight for justice against Volkswagen for their actions. We have been at the forefront of the action since the very beginning as the first law firm to formally accept cases, launch them and initiate High Court proceedings.
The deadline to claim is set to be in the next eight months. If you have yet to start your claim, contact us now to join the action.
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