Peugeot raided by French emissions investigators

PSA Peugeot Citroen offices have been raided by anti-fraud investigators as part of ongoing investigations on pollutants in the car industry.

The firm said its vehicles are emissions compliant.

Meanwhile, UK government testing has found no evidence of car manufacturers apart from the VW group fitting devices to cheat emissions testing.

However, the UK said real world emissions were higher than lab testing conditions for all manufacturers.

Authorities and car manufacturers have been on the alert in the wake of the Volkswagen emissions scandal, which emerged in late September.

Volkswagen (VW) admitted its diesel-engine cars had been fitted with computer software designed to flatter emissions data during tests, and on Thursday said it had reached a US deal to offer "substantial compensation" and car buy-backs.

Peugeot raid

Peugeot said on Thursday it had been "the subject of a visit and a seizure by France's General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF)".

"PSA Group confirms compliance of its vehicles in pollutant emissions in all countries where it operates", it said in a statement.

"Confident in its technologies, PSA Group is fully cooperating with the authorities" the firm added.

In January competitor Renault was subject to police raids on its factories.

UK findings

Meanwhile, the UK government said its vehicles testing programme had uncovered "no evidence of car manufacturers, apart from the VW Group, fitting devices to defeat the approved emissions test programme."

It said tests had been carried out on 56 different vehicle types in Germany and 37 different vehicle types in the UK over a period of six months.

The Department for Transport said it had "tested a representative selection of the UK's top selling diesel vehicles".

It said for all of the manufacturers tested, nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions were higher in real world conditions and on the test track than they were under laboratory conditions, with "results varying significantly between different makes and models."

For example, testing of nitrogen oxide emissions for car models such as the Honda CRV, the Volvo V40, Mercedes E250, Peugeot 208 and Range Rover Sport found they exceeded the Euro 5 limit of 180mg per kilometre in real world conditions.