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German prosecutors say the engines of Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Jeep cars involve potentially illegal software to mask major emissions.
Fiat sites have been searched across Europe from research on diesel emissions.
The industrial offices belonging to Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and CNH Industrial were raided on Wednesday in Germany, Italy and Switzerland as a result of an investigation initiated by German prosecutors investigating emissions fraud.
It was discovered that engines used in Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Jeep vehicles, as well as CNH Industrial’s Iveco pickup trucks, involve potentially illegal engine control software to mask major emissions, prosecutors said.
The Frankfurt prosecutor’s office stopped before appointing Alfa Romeo and Fiat’s parent company, Fiat Chrysler, because under German law, only individuals, not companies, can be prosecuted.
The research focuses on nine other people applying for an “international car manufacturer” and seeks to identify their role in putting cars on public roads with potentially illegal contaminant software, the prosecutor’s workplace said.
An FCA spokesman said several of the group’s offices in Europe had been visited through investigators as part of a request for legal assistance in Germany, adding that it was cooperating fully with the authorities.
In a statement, CNH Industrial showed that the government had visited its facilities.
FCA and CNH Industrial are controlled through Exor, the corporate holding company of the Italian family Agnelli.
Potentially illegal software detected on the 1.3-liter, 1.6-litre Multijet engines used in Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Fiat engines, as well as in diesel advertising engines used in Iveco and Fiat advertising vehicles, prosecutors said.
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Although those cars passed pollutant testing in a lab, the cars used software to largely disable exhaust emission filtering while driving on the road, they added.
The investigation, coordinated through the European justice firm Eurojust, focuses on nine other people living in Italy and its activities from 2014 to 2019, they said.
“While cars were setting NOx [nitrogen oxides] limits in mode, neutralization devices are intended to disable exhaust gas cleaning in a genuine driving,” prosecutors said.
“The use of such defeat contraptions is prohibited,” EU rules.
Cars equipped with such devices must be approved anywhere on the block, and owners threaten to ban driving or waste their permit to use them, prosecutors said.
Although car models have been rated through Italian regulators, prosecutors are not subject to this conclusion and can read about the factor themselves.
Prosecutors say more than 200,000 cars are affected in Germany.
The raids come almost five years after a US investigation into Volkswagen AG was made public about the use of so-called defeat devices in their engines.
While VW and Daimler AG have solved criminal investigations, Wednesday’s raids show that the government has still put the factor aside.