The German based luxury vehicle producer, BMW, recently recalled about 12,000 diesel vehicles. This was after discovering that they were emitting more harmful gases on road than in the laboratories. BMW said that they would carry out a software update on the recalled cars.
The German manufacturer gave out a statement indicating that they had noted a few models were not compatible with the installed software program. This was pointed out after an internal test was carried out. BMW confirmed that they had immediately notified authorities after making the discovery. This has resulted in a recall of 11,700 BMW model vehicles worldwide. The discontinued generation of top niche 7- series and 5- series BMW models produced between 2012 and 2017 were affected.
Reports indicate that BMW had admitted to KBA vehicle licensing authority that results from the regulatory tests carried out on levels of harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) may be misleading. This is because of the incompatible software in these BMW vehicle models.
Suspicion of the failing compatibility of software arose after Volkswagen admitted to deliberately using the incompatible software in 11 million cars. Volkswagen is the parent company of BMW and its competitor Audi brands. Fortunately, BMW has successfully trumpeted clean diesel engine vehicle records so far.
The BMW development chief, Mr. Klaus Froehlic confidently said that BMW vehicles had not been manipulated and their diesel engines were clean. This was after the KBA found no defects in the 5- series after environmental activists had called for its inspection.
BMW further explained that the software was not a ‘defeat device’; instead it had been mistakenly programmed into cars which had a different harmful NOx removal system from the exhaust. As such, the corrected software for the affected vehicles would be made available soon after approval from relevant authorities.
