Emissions-fraud probe costs Renault dearly

French environment minister, Segolene Royal, has announced that despite Renault’s emission results being “above normal”, no fraudulent systems have been found on any of its cars.

Making the announcement, late last night our time, Segolene said both shareholders and employees can "rest easy" over fears the car-maker had cheated emission tests.

Following her public statement, the French car-makers shares rose as much as 3.6 percent in early trading.

On Thursday, after the new searches had been carried out at three facilities owned by Renault, the share worth of France’s biggest car-maker crashed by 23 per cent over fears of another Volkswagen Dieselgate scandal, but shares soon began to slowly rally after it emerged that the French car-maker might have been innocent.

Biggest loser, ironically as shares plunged, was the French government itself, which saw almost $2 billion’s worth of value wiped off its 20 per cent stake in the automaker.

Such are the losses of public money, plans to sell a five per cent stake in the Renault by the government are now on ice, according to French economy minister, Emmanuel Macron: "Our intention is not to sell these shares at a loss to the taxpayer”.

Renault’s share price traded at around 80 euros, down from a high of 100.25 euros last May 2015.

It’s still not known why Renault’s facilities were raided last week, although speaking to motoring.com.au, an insider working for the car-maker said that the police were not involved in the “unannounced visit” by investigators to the three Renault facilities.

The source would not comment why fellow French car-maker PSA had not had similar raids from the General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF).

It is thought that Renault’s size (it’s France’s largest car-maker) could have influenced the decision to visit to gather evidence before it was lost to ascertain whether emission cheating could be endemic within the French car industry.

According to the Renault insider, the search largely focused on Renault’s Technical Centre in Lardy. Lardy is where Renault carries out its emission testing for soon-to-be-launched models. It’s also there it develops and calibrates engines and Electronic Control Units for its diesel and petrol engines.

No evidence of any cheating was found by the investigators, our source insists, backed up by the French government minister.

Last month, Renault declared it would invest $75 million on developing cars with emissions in the real world that are in line with the official test conditions.

Renault plans to continue to support and lobby the European Union’s legislative bodies to force in new real-world emission and fuel consumption tests, says the Renault insider.

Yesterday, PSA Peugeot Citroen issued a statement that it too had been cleared of any wrong-doing by the French laboratory UTAC.