Dieselgate: Second trial required for deception, this time against Peugeot and Citroën

After Volkswagen , Peugeot and Citroën? The Paris prosecutor's office has requested a second trial for aggravated deception in the Dieselgate scandal , this time against the two manufacturers of the Stellantis group, suspected of having marketed vehicles that deliberately did not comply with pollution standards.

According to the prosecution's requisitions of June 25, which AFP learned of on Thursday and which L'Informé reported, the two manufacturers are accused of having marketed cars "specially calibrated" to "ensure compliance with the regulatory standard relating to nitrogen oxide emissions, only under the driving conditions of the homologation test." When contacted, the lawyer for the two companies, Eric Dezeuze, declined to comment.

"In normal traffic conditions [...], the calibration implemented led to significantly degraded operation of the pollution control systems and resulted in the regulatory threshold for nitrogen oxide emissions being frequently exceeded," accuses the public prosecutor.

The prosecution is proposing that the investigating judges, who must make the final decision on whether to hold a trial, consider that these facts made the use of the vehicles "dangerous to health" , "particularly promoting the appearance of respiratory diseases in humans" , which constitutes an aggravating circumstance.

In this case, the two manufacturers of the Stellantis group were respectively indicted on June 9 and 10, 2021, concerning the sale in France, over the period 2009-2015, of Euro 5 diesel vehicles.

Nearly two million vehicles meeting the Euro 5 standard were sold between 2009 and 2015 by the two manufacturers, for a turnover of 33.9 billion euros, according to figures transmitted by the PSA group to the French anti-fraud agency (DGCCRF).

Several former PSA Peugeot Citroën executives, including Jean-Martin Folz, Christian Streiff, and Philippe Varin, were interviewed during the investigation. It led to numerous expert assessments, technical analyses, and procedural disputes, and some of the companies' appeals are still pending before the Paris Court of Appeal.

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During questioning, one of the managers defended the group by stating that its calibration of vehicles with regard to pollution "was based on compliance with regulations and on observation of the use of vehicles by customers" in real traffic conditions.

The same official referred to "extremely vague" Euro 5 regulations and defended the results of Peugeot and Citroën vehicles, which he said were positive in terms of nitrogen oxide emissions, which were said to be lower than the current standard.

Another senior official assured during questioning that the regulations required results during the certification test but did not require that the level be respected on every real-life course and at every moment, according to these requisitions.

Marc Barennes and Romain Boulet, lawyers for civil parties, public and private entities, indicated that their clients "welcome this decisive step towards organizing a trial."

"The investigations have indeed shown that the manufacturers put on the market vehicles specially calibrated to ensure compliance with the standards relating to nitrogen oxide emissions only under homologation test conditions and not in normal traffic situations," they said. "In doing so, the manufacturers endangered the health of the entire population, for which they will have to answer before a criminal court, with appropriate compensation," the two councils further detailed.

Several associations have joined the lawsuit as civil parties, such as France Nature Environnement (FNE), Greenpeace, UFC-Que Choisir and Générations Futures.

In March, the Paris prosecutor's office had already requested a similar trial for Volkswagen, accused of equipping nearly a million vehicles with software that artificially reduced their pollutant emissions during approval tests. Fiat-Chrysler and Renault were also indicted in mid-2021 for similar charges, and their cases are also nearing completion.