Volvo emissions scandal: recalls or driving bans?

Is the automaker Volvo facing a massive emissions scandal, long after the major diesel recall wave at VW, Audi, Mercedes, and others was considered over? The German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) confirmed to FOCUS online that the manufacturer must recall 1,700 XC60 models due to tampered emissions control systems. "Volvo has been instructed to contact every single owner within the next two months. The relevant vehicle type approvals were issued at the time by the Spanish type approval authority," the KBA stated. Specifically, this concerns the XC60 2.0 Diesel Euro 5 (Type D, 120 kW, front-wheel drive, first registered approximately March 2011 to April 2013).

The reason for the order was that the KBA, as part of its market surveillance inspections, had discovered an illegal defeat device on the vehicles. "The vehicles' exhaust gas recirculation is reduced depending on the outside temperature, which reduces the effectiveness of the emissions control system with regard to nitrogen oxides," the authority stated. Exhaust gas purification is reduced for most of the year.

Background: The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has retroactively declared the emissions control systems approved by the authorities for many diesel vehicles invalid. The lobby and campaign group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) has long been calling for millions of diesel cars to be taken out of service , as this would render them worthless to their owners and make them unusable.

Although the decision against Volvo is not yet legally binding, the KBA has ordered immediate enforcement. As a Volvo spokesperson confirmed to FOCUS online, the affected customers will now be contacted within two months. After that, Volvo will have a further 16 months to remedy the situation - i.e. to remove the illegal emissions control via software or other updates, as had to be done with Volkswagen's scandal diesels. However, the manufacturer contradicts media reports that the vehicles would now face a driving ban . The KBA cannot confirm this either. Vehicle owners do not need to do anything at the moment, according to Volvo. Furthermore, the manufacturer cannot understand the KBA's legal reasoning and will take action against the decision.

Meanwhile, lawyer Markus Klamert, who specializes in the emissions scandal, assumes that the whole thing won't be resolved with a simple recall: "These vehicles should never have received type approval. They are illegal. Period. Volvo let the hearing period granted to it expire without remedying the defects – an act of willful turning a blind eye or disregard for German and European registration law. The KBA (German Federal Motor Transport Authority) subsequently issued a binding recall notice, the first step towards the final decommissioning of all affected vehicles," Klamert says. He continues: "According to internal audits by the authority, all Volvo diesel models are affected. This means: 130,000 vehicles in Germany were illegally placed on the market. Their operating permit is objectively invalid – their registration is therefore unlawful." However, the KBA has so far only mentioned 1,700 vehicles.

FOCUS online legal expert Marco Rogert, who has led and won numerous lawsuits in the emissions scandal , also sees a potential wave of lawsuits looming over the Swedes. "As one of the first lawyers to devote himself to the legal investigation of the diesel emissions scandal in Germany, I see a worrying déjà vu in the Volvo case: Once again, software-based defeat devices are being investigated that exhibit different emissions behavior in test bench operation than on the road. If the suspicion is confirmed, the manufacturer faces significant liability risks – especially towards consumers who, in good faith, relied on the brand's environmental promises. Legislators have learned from the VW scandal, and so have the courts – Volvo should take this seriously, too," Rogert said.

If the Swedes actually have to rework hundreds of thousands of diesel vehicles in Germany and possibly other countries, it could be quite complicated. According to information from FOCUS online, the manufacturer, which is part of the Chinese Geely Group and has completely abandoned diesel engines, may no longer have the development capacity to develop and test software or even hardware updates. The effort involved is considerable.