Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, has announced it is recalling three million cars in Europe to add a ‘software fix’ in an attempt to “strengthen confidence” for owners.
The fix will lower certain vehicles’ nitrogen oxide emissions. Although the exact number of affected UK cars is not confirmed, the total is thought to run into the several hundreds of thousands.
Mercedes’ 1.5-litre diesel engine (codenamed OM 642), 2.0-litre diesel, 2.2-litre unit (codenamed OM 651) and a 3.0-litre diesel (codenamed OM 642) are affected. These engines are used in the A-Class, B-Class, CLA, GLA, C-Class, E-Class, S-Class and GLE models.
Mercedes said the process to recall the cars will cost around £195 million, with the first cars being patched in the coming weeks and the final cars being fixed by the end of 2018.
The German brand added that customers would not incur any costs and that it would take around an hour to modify each car. It added that the process is being “carried out in close cooperation with the German regulatory authorities”.
Earlier this month, the company was accused of installing software to improve the results of emissions tests. Last week, members of the German transport department met with representatives of the brand.
“On the basis of our current information, we would fight any claim by the German Transport Safety Authority that we installed an illegal emissions control device with all legal means available,” a statement issued last week said.
However, a spokesman said the “voluntary service measure” was not linked to the German investigation.