Over 100 emissions investigators targeted BMW’s Munich offices as well as an engine plant located in Austria. This comes as part of continuing investigations into suspected cheating on emissions regulations. Munich prosecutors said in a statement that they were investigating whether the software in some BMW diesel models functioned like so-called defeat devices, cranking up pollution controls when a car’s engine computer detects an emissions test in progress and allowing excess exhaust under real-world conditions.
BMW claims that the software that prompted the raids was installed by mistake and that there was no intent to deceive regulators. They also claim that this software affected none of the vehicles sold in North America. In all they are currently expecting to recall only about 11,400 cars due to the issue (in comparison to Volkswagens 11 million vehicles world wide).
BMW isn’t in the clear yet, they have also been linked to helping fun the Volkswagen study that used monkeys subjected to exhaust fumes to help show how “clean” their vehicles were. We will wait and see as the story develops as new facts come to light.