Germany Ordered Porsche To Pull Cayenne SUVs Off Their Roads
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BERLIN July 27, 2017 ; Birgit Jennen and Rainer Buergin writing for Bloomberg reported that Germany ordered Porsche brand to pull thousands of Cayenne SUVs off the road as the brand became the latest Volkswagen Group marque to be embroiled in the diesel cheating scandal.
The German government has evidence that 22,000 Cayennes sold in Europe with 3.0-liter diesel engines use a defeat device to cheat on emissions testing, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters in Berlin.
Dobrindt said he was withdrawing certification for the vehicles, and Porsche would bear 100 percent of the cost of the recall.
There is a “high probability” that the VW Touareg SUV also has similar software installed, Dobrindt said.
"This has not yet been checked by us and will now be carried out immediately," he said. "Volkswagen will cooperate with us to ensure that these vehicles, if there is a similar software there, are then subjected to the appropriate procedures."
Porsche said it had discovered the software during an internal investigation, and that it had agreed to recall the vehicles to fix the problem.
"This vehicle is a vehicle still in production," Dobrindt said at a hastily called press conference on Thursday.
He said the government will impose a registration ban on vehicles that are still being sold until updated software is available, which must be approved by the KBA registration authorities.
About 7,000 of the 22,000 Cayennes are registered in Germany.
