13th Oct 2025 12:04
(Alliance News) - A trial involving five major carmakers opened at London's High Court Monday, marking the latest chapter of the dieselgate emissions scandal that has rocked the auto industry for a decade.
The High Court will decide in a three-month hearing whether systems installed in Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Ford Motor Co Ltd, Peugeot-Citroen, Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co diesel vehicles were designed to cheat clean air laws.
The trial of the five lead defendants will set a precedent for other manufacturers, potentially paving the way for billions of pounds in compensation.
The claims were brought on behalf of 1.6 million motorists against 14 carmakers, including Jaguar Land Rover, Toyota Motor Corp, Vauxhall-Opel and BMW AG, among others.
Martyn Day, lawyer at Leigh Day representing the claimants, said the case could lead to "serious amounts of compensation".
"The most important thing for us is to persuade the judge that there are defeat devices in all of these cars," he told AFP outside court.
The dieselgate scandal first erupted in September 2015, when Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker Volkswagen AG admitted to fitting millions of vehicles with software to make engines appear less polluting in regulatory tests than in real driving conditions.
It caused waves in the global car industry, ensnaring several other top carmakers and leading to legal action in multiple countries including France, South Korea and the US.
The court in London will examine evidence to determine whether major carmakers installed defeat devices in cars to reduce nitrogen oxide readings in order to cheat emissions tests.
The five lead defendants deny that their systems were designed to circumvent the tests.
London resident Rosamund Adoo Kissi-Debrah, whose nine-year-old daughter Ella died in 2013 from an asthma attack linked to air pollution, joined around twenty protestors outside the court Monday.
"The coroner said if it wasn't for the illegal levels of air pollution where we live, not only would she not have got asthma, she wouldn't have died on that fatal night," she told AFP.
She hopes for "an apology" from the manufacturers.
"There are still millions of diesel cars on our roads and making our children sick," said Jemima Hartshorn, a clean air campaigner at Mums for Lungs.
She said she hoped the trial would encourage the government to "get these cars off our roads to protect our children's health".
Adam Kamenetzky, one of the claimants, said he felt "defrauded" after he bought a Mercedes SUV in 2018 on the belief that it was less polluting than other models.
"We live in a built-up neighbourhood in London where there are children with lungs that can be harmed immeasurably by the emissions that these cars are producing," he told AFP.
Kamenetzky said outside the court that he wants to "hold to account" the manufacturers.
But it will take some time for any possible compensation to reach claimants.
The trial beginning Monday must first determine whether carmakers are liable, before a separate compensation phase can follow next year.
Stuttgart, Germany-based carmaker Mercedes and Dearborn, Michigan-based carmaker Ford both rejected the claims as having "no merit", while Yokohama, Japan-based Nissan declined to comment.
Manufacturers Renault and Stellantis NV, parent of Peugeot and Citroen, both said the vehicles they sold were compliant with regulations at the time.
When the High Court in 2020 found Volkswagen had used defeat devices to cheat emissions tests, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based carmaker settled out of court, paying GBP193 million to 91,000 British motorists.
Overall, to date, Volkswagen has had to pay more than EUR32 billion in penalties over the scandal, mostly in the US.
By Alexandra Bacon
source: AFP
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