Daimler to recall hundreds of thousands of additional cars as part of ‘Dieselgate’ scandal

German carmaker Daimler said it will recall “a medium six-figure” number of diesel engines that fail to meet the EU’s emission standards after a ruling by German road traffic regulator.

A probe by the federal authority for roads, Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), determined that so-called OM 651 diesel engines do not meet Euro 5 emission standards, and that illegal software was used to cover up the deficiency.

Among the new recalls are some 260,000 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter light commercial vans, which went out of production before June 2016.

The company has already recalled more than three million cars across Europe over those issues. The latest case saw some 60,000 Mercedes-Benz GLK 220 vehicles, produced between 2012 and 2015, returned by the customers in June.

The so-called ‘Dieselgate’ scandal erupted in 2015 when Volkswagen admitted to wide-scale use of software that allowed it to cheat emissions compliance rules. The company had to recall over 11 million cars worldwide and pay more than €25 billion ($27.5 billion) in fines as a result. It was later revealed that other major carmakers took advantage of the same exploit. In April, the European Commission charged Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW with colluding to block the rollout of emissions cleaning technology.

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