Environmental organisation Quercus has warned that 29 of Europe’s 30 most polluting diesel cars are sold in Portugal.
The ‘Dirty 30’ list was compiled by the European Federation of Transport and Environment (T&E) – which Quercus is a member of – and names Renault as the carmaker with the highest number of polluting cars (four), followed by Opel and Mercedes (three each), and BMW and Ford (two).
The reason carmakers get away with producing these environmentally hazardous vehicles, the federation says, is because they are approved in their own “home country”.
“Carmakers are choosing to play at home with a biased referee, guaranteeing that they win but their cars pollute and people die. What else than Dieselgate do you expect when Germany approved Mercedes, France approved Renault, the UK Jaguar and Italy Fiat,” says Greg Archer, director of clean vehicles at T&E.
“Either we break the cosy relationship between national authorities and their car brands with effective European supervision and independent testing or the cheating will continue,” he adds.
According to T&E, all 30 cars on the list “have excess NOx emissions in real life and deploy strategies that turn down or switch off pollution controls in circumstances beyond those prescribed in the EU test, notably lower temperatures, hot engine starts, and rides longer than 20 minutes.”
The full ‘Dirty 30’ list is as follows (the only car that is not sold in Portugal is Renault’s Kadjar model):
• BMW: 2 Series GT; 5 SeriesVI
• Citroën: C4 Picasso II
• Dacia: Sandero
• Fiat: 500X
• Ford: C-Max II; Focus III
• Honda: CR-V IV
• Hyundai: i20 II
• Jaguar: XE
• Kia: Sportage III
• Land Rover: Range Rover Evoque
• Mazda: 6 III
• Mercedes-Benz: A-Class III; S-Class VI; V-Class III
• Nissan: Qashqai II
• Opel: Mokka; Zafira III; Insignia
• Peugeot: 5008
• Porsche: Macan
• Renault: Captur; Mégane III; Kadjar; Espace V
• Škoda: Octavia III
• Suzuki: Vitara IV
• Toyota: Avensis III
• Volvo: V60
