Police searched 10 business sites across Germany on Tuesday as Frankfurt prosecutors opened a fraud investigation into suspected diesel emissions cheating involving Mitsubishi cars.
The raids covered the states of Hesse, Bavaria and Lower Saxony, and premises in Frankfurt, Hanover and Regensburg were among those searched. The prosecutors’ statement said the focus is Mitsubishi diesel vehicles with 1.6- and 2.2-litre four-cylinder engines, rated Euro 5 and Euro 6 in Germany.
“There is a suspicion that the engines are equipped with a so-called shutdown device,” the statement said. Such a device makes an engine look cleaner in laboratory tests than it is on the road.
Who is under investigation
The prosecutors did not name everyone involved. They said they were investigating senior employees at an international car group for fraud, along with two car suppliers and a car dealership.
Mitsubishi Motors said German authorities had told it about an investigation of its German distributor and its European research and development facilities, which are also in Germany. “No further information is available at that stage,” the company said. “Mitsubishi Motors will of course collaborate and contribute to this investigation.”
Supplier Continental said it is a cooperating witness. A spokesman told AFP that three of its locations were searched and that it was acting as a witness. Bosch said it was not involved.
Dieselgate’s long tail
The case is the latest to grow out of the scandal that began in 2015, when Volkswagen admitted it had installed software in 11 million vehicles worldwide to cheat pollution tests. Engine software of this kind detects when a car is on a test cycle and throttles back toxic fumes to hide real-world pollution.
Investigations across Europe followed. Some Opel, Renault and Fiat Chrysler models were found emitting nitrogen oxide at more than 10 times the regulatory limit on the road. French prosecutors opened criminal probes into Volkswagen, Renault, PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler in 2016-17, and those remain ongoing. Volkswagen’s bill has passed 30 billion euros in fines, compensation and buybacks. Bosch agreed last year to pay a 90 million euro fine for supervisory lapses that let carmakers cheat, and Daimler, which denies cheating, agreed to an 870-million-euro fine.
Mitsubishi had avoided the diesel controversy until now. The Tokyo-based company did admit in 2016 to falsifying fuel-economy tests for 25 years.
The raids come at a delicate moment for its alliance with Renault and Nissan, which has been dogged by scandal since the arrest of former chief Carlos Ghosn in Japan in 2018. Ghosn, who denies the charges against him, fled to Lebanon last month after jumping bail.
Sources
- German prosecutors probe Mitsubishi for suspected illegal defeat devices
- German authorities raid suspected Mitsubishi diesel fraud
