Group Litigation Accuses Nissan, Renault of Cheating Emissions Tests

An estimated 1.3 million diesel Renault and Nissan vehicles and 100,000 petrol-powered Nissan Qashqais could be equipped with illegal emissions “defeat devices,” London-based law firm Harcus Parker alleges.

The law firm is launching a Nissan emissions class action lawsuit, stating a freedom of information request allocated with the Department for Transport gave it “previously unseen documents” showing up to 100,000 1.2-litre petrol Nissan Qashqais violate emissions tests by “up to 15 times” the legal limit in the U.K. 

Independent test data demonstrated that it’s possible that up to 700,000 Renault diesel vehicles and 600,000 Nissan vehicles in the U.K. could be implemented with the illicit emissions defeat devices, the law firm claims.

The Nissan emissions lawsuit notes the affected Nissan models alongside the Qashqai are the Note, Juke and X-Trail, while Renault’s Clio, Espace, Captur, Megane and Scenic are all mentioned. Vehicles manufactured between 2009 and 2018 are affected.

Both car companies deny these claims.

The firm claims the freedom of information request divulges that the U.K. government attempted to recall and fix the Nissan emissions issue, but the carmaker rejected the notion. 

In September 2017, the Department for Transportation purportedly wrote a statement to Nissan, saying, “A petrol Nissan Qashqai was selected for testing this year. We have now completed this testing, and we found that when conducting NEDC tests on a test track and conducting a Real Driving Emissions test, NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions results were very high for this vehicle.”

And again in 2018, the Department for Transportation allegedly stated the Qashqai was “not sufficiently well designed to control the NOx in real-world conditions.”

These are systems that turn on emissions controls when the vehicle undergoing an emissions test but turns the controls off when the vehicle is being driven on the road, in order to enhance performance, reliability or both.

It’s not just Nissan’s emissions that have come into a considerable investigation. Emissions tests from diesel vehicles have come under massive scrutiny since 2015, following a large emission test scandal connected with Volkswagen.

Harcus Parker also alleges that Renault and Nissan vehicles running the 1.5- and 1.6-litre diesel engines are some of the most destructive real-world emitters of NOx, with poorer emissions than both Volkswagen and Mercedes models. 

Both Nissan UK and Renault UK contributed a statement to Autocar firmly opposing all allegations by Harcus Parker.

“Nissan has not and does not employ defeat devices in any of the cars that we make, and all Nissan vehicles fully comply with applicable emissions legislation,” Nissan said. “The initial report from 2017, which looked at the variation between lab and ‘real world’ conditions, showed variances for most brands involved. It also stated that the Nissan tested complied with all required regulatory limits.”

A spokesman for Renault added: “All Renault vehicles are, and always have been, type-approved in accordance with the laws and regulations for all the countries in which they are sold and are not fitted with ‘defeat devices.’”

“For the first time, we have seen evidence that car manufacturers may be cheating emissions tests of petrol as well as diesel vehicles,” Harcus Parker senior partner Damon Parker said. “We have written to Renault and Nissan to seek an explanation for these extraordinary results, but the data suggests that these vehicles, much like some VW and Mercedes cars, know when they are being tested and are on their best behaviour then and only then.” 

The law firm reports that customers paid too much for their vehicles, due to the defeat devices being fitted, and hold the right to compensation “in the region of £5000 each.” The law firm is insisting that owners of affected vehicles come forward and join the action.

Do you drive one of the affected vehicles? Let us know in the comments.

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