Germany ponders diesel-cleaning retrofit

Germany’s newly formed government is considering forcing its car-makers to retrofit millions of diesel cars with emissions-cleaning hardware.

Pilloried for its close relationship with its car-makers as the Dieselgate emissions-cheating timeline came to light, the German government could ask those same car-makers to contribute to a pool of money to clean up older cars.

Germany’s Der Speigel magazine has reported that the government was hoping to create a €5 billion fund for a “comprehensive” exhaust system refitting scheme.

There are approximately 15 million diesel-powered cars on Germany’s roads, but only 2.7 million of them have the latest EU6 emissions-scrubbing technologies.

Diesel car-makers have been under enormous pressure in Germany lately, with Mercedes-Benz boosting the size of its emission-lawsuit fund, Benz and Opel being slammed for ‘thermal’ switching systems and even ‘clean-skin’ BMW being raided by Dieselgate investigators.

But things took a dramatic turn for the worst in February when a Federal Court ruled German cities had the right to ban diesel-powered cars from their central zones in times of dangerously high air pollution.

The retrofitting schemes would be a nightmare for car-makers and proposals include fitting heavily polluting cars with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems that demand AdBlue injection.

That would involve the fitting of AdBlue tanks, lines, injectors and, somehow, an easily accessed filler nozzle, along with new exhaust hardware.

Four-time German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone on the record to insist that diesel bans in cities were not the right way to go, even suggesting taxpayers – not car-makers – should pay for the retrofitting schemes.