Photo: AP
When all’s said and done, Volkwsagen’s never-ending Dieselgate saga may be seen as the tip of the iceberg, and not just an explosive revelation from an automaker that explicitly set out to cheat. Several automakers have been ensnared in accusations of diesel cheating and now, in Germany, Porsche has to recall 22,000 Cayennes for allegedly equipping the vehicles with illegal software to skirt emissions test.
Germany’s transport minister, Alexander Dobrindt, ordered a recall of the Cayennes and said the nation’s government would ban any registrations of the three-litre crossover until a software fix is made available, according to the Financial Times.
The latest emissions missive comes amid a separate, evolving scandal that Germany’s largest carmakers have run a cartel of sorts since the 1990s, colluding on tech, suppliers, and prices.
The recall comes a month after it emerged that Germany had been investigating Porsche for the use of defeat devices. As part of that investigation, it appears, the government established that Porsche Cayenne sport utility vehicles contained a defeat device, which, according to FT, worked when the car was in an official lab test. When the Cayenne hit the road, FT reports, the device switched off.
A spokesperson for Porsche didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. We’ll update if we hear back.