Dieselgate: 16,000 people have died in France since 2009 due to rigged engines

Ten years ago, in 2015, this scandal revealed that car manufacturers, primarily Volkswagen, were marketing diesel vehicles that emitted significantly more pollutants than permitted. More than 200 car models in total are suspected of having been equipped with emission control defeat devices, rigged engines that emit additional nitrogen dioxide particles. These excess emissions are added to the legally permitted emissions.

The affected cars are diesels sold between September 2009 and August 2019 under Euro 5 and 6 standards, which predate the RDE test, which checks that vehicles maintain low emissions even in real-world driving conditions on the road.

Why deaths?

According to the study, the engines will have killed a total of 24,000 people between 2009, when they were put into service, and 2040, the planned end of internal combustion engines. 16,000 already, and 8,000 additional premature deaths, caused by the effects of air pollution: respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers, etc.

According to the study's authors, these 8,000 deaths are preventable if "the government requires car manufacturers to bring these vehicles up to standard. This is what was done in the United States as soon as the scandal broke, to save thousands of lives. We must act."

The study also quantified the economic impact of Dieselgate: it will have an economic cost of 146 billion euros, due in particular to lost productivity, healthcare costs, and premature deaths. The study points to 2.4 million sick days attributable to excess emissions linked to Dieselgate between 2009 and 2040, and over the same period, 26,000 new cases of asthma caused in France by these rigged engines.

At the European level (European Union + United Kingdom), the number of premature deaths climbs to 205,000, and economic losses to 1,200 billion euros.

This Monday, the car engine trafficking scandal led to a new court conviction : four former Volkswagen executives in Germany were sentenced to up to four and a half years in prison for organized fraud. In 2023, former Audi boss Rupert Stadler was also sentenced to a 21-month suspended prison sentence and a €1.1 million fine by the German courts.