 "Volkswagen cheating scandal threatens to ensnare BMW")
The diesel-cheating affair that toppled Volkswagen AG's chief executive officer deepened as Germany announced plans to widen its investigation and the scandal threatened to ensnare rival BMW AG.
BMW plunged as much as 9.7 per cent after a German magazine reported Thursday that a diesel version of the X3 sport utility vehicle emitted as much as 11 times the European limit for air pollution in a road test. German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said that spot checks of vehicles would not be limited to VW.
"It's self-evident" that Germany's motor vehicle administration "will concentrate its investigations not only on the Volkswagen models in question but will also do spot checks of other car manufacturers," Dobrindt told reporters in Berlin.
The entire auto industry and the methods used for testing vehicles are coming under scrutiny following revelations that VW's "clean diesel" cars have software intended to defeat emissions tests. The European automakers' lobby group, the ACEA, on Wednesday placed the blame in VW's court, issuing a statement saying that "there is no evidence this is an industry-wide issue."
The BMW SUV was road-tested by the International Council on Clean Transportation, the same group whose tipoff led US regulators to investigate a gap between VW diesels' emissions in tests and on the road, Germany's Autobild reported. BMW said that there's no system in its cars that responds to tests differently than it would operate on the road.
