12:20 pm, October 23, 2015
VAUXHALL has become the latest manufacturer to become implicated in the ongoing vehicle emissions scandal.
As the Volkswagen group continues to face damaging headlines weeks after the story first broke, a German environmental organisation has now claimed that the Zafira 1.6 CDTi – known as a Zafira Tourer in the UK – emits levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx) up to 17 times the level allowed under EU6 emission regulations.
But the manufacturer has been swift to react to the claim, describing it as ‘false and unfounded’, according to a report on the Autocar website.
The allegation is based on a series of tests carried out by the Bern Technical College in Switzerland, operating in association with an organisation called the German Environmental Aid Association.
The association says the type of car they tested was a 118bhp, 1.6-litre, four-cylinder diesel Zafira 1.6 CDTi.
And it claims that there were significant discrepancies in its emissions during rolling road tests.
The association says that the vehicle ‘behaves differently’ when the dynamometer [a device used to measure force, torque or power] is operated in four- or two-wheel mode.
And it also claims that the amount of NOx generated by the front-wheel-drive car increases when its speed is increased to 93mph in two-wheel mode.
The implication is clear: that Vauxhall is guilty of dirty tricks similar to those used at Volkswagen, perhaps with ‘defeat devices’ used to manipulate test results in laboratory conditions.
Vauxhall has firmly rejected the claims, however, saying the emission values of the Zafira 1.6 CDTi are ‘absolutely correct’ and ‘in line with the law’.
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