Renault has issued a recall for more than 15,000 units of its diesel powered Captur crossover SUV produced before September 2015. Renault has agreed that the engines may not be adhering to the norms at all temperatures, but has stressed on the fact that there has been no attempt to use any cheat devices.
Director of engineering at Renault, Gaspar Gascon Abellan, said a calibration error in the emission cutting system was discovered due to which the nitrogen oxides and sulphur emissions could not be adequately controlled. Renault will also make system upgrades available for more than 7,00,000 diesel cars to reign in the emissions.
The discord in permitted emissions, test results and real-time emissions was being tested for over 100 different vehicles in the wake of Volkswagen’s dieselgate. 25 of these cars checked across Europe are Renaults. The engines worked fine between the test-range of 17 to 35 degree Celsius as per test norms but failed to match the requirements at temperatures below 17 degrees.
There have also been calls for revision of test procedures for laboratory testing of pollutant emissions to bridge the gap between testing and real world scenarios. Also, there have been proposals for testing new cars for emissions before they are sold at the dealerships. Renault says the upgrades have been offered voluntarily by the French manufacturer for customers that would want to upgrade their cars. Meanwhile, the Renault market cap has suffered a devaluation of over three billion euros after the raids on company premises in the beginning of this month.
