According to the Europe-based International Council on Clean Transportation, former Chrysler owner Daimler-Benz overstates fuel economy for its Mercedes line. The company is not alone, but it is on the top of the ICCT’s list.
The European nonprofit was possibly the first to discover Volkswagen/Audi’s cheating on diesel emissions, with a 2013 report. More recently, they found that the industry’s gap between official European fuel economy results and “real world” testing went from 8% in 2001 to 40% this year. [See their report]
There may be illegal “test detectors,” but testing allows for other ways to fake results, including the use of non-production parts, according to the paper, which drew confirming data from numerous sources — both customer-generated and automated. (...) →