The German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrint has withdrawn certification for Porsche Cayenne vehicles equipped with three-cylinder Diesel engines due to faulty emissions control software.
On Thursday, during an internal probe into their vehicles, Porsche stated that they discovered ‘irregular’ emissions software, and agreed to recall the vehicles and resolve the problem.
Alexander Dobrint commented:
‘We have examined Porsche Cayenne vehicles of the 3 liter TDI Euro 6 Mark – during tests these vehicles deploy a so-called defense strategy, which isn’t activated in real traffic.’
‘In our view that is a kind of test recognition, which we regard as an impermissible deactivation strategy.’
This is reminiscent of an event involving their parent company (Volkswagen) in 2015. Volkswagen was accused of making their vehicles initiate full emissions control only during testing on their Diesel cars, which may have resulted in falsely high emissions test scores. That year, Volkswagen also said that it found ‘irregularities’ in emissions tests, which might affect approximately 800,000 cars in Europe. They did appoint a new CEO in 2015, following that scandal.