German investigators say they have found a new “defeat device” in a Fiat car during emissions tests.
The ministry declined to give details but said it would send the results to the European Commission, which has reviewed a previous emissions case involving Fiat.
Fiat has always denied its cars were equipped with an illegal emissions test cheating device and said it fully complied with legislation over the systems.
At the same time, German prosecutors have said they expect the first rulings this year in legal cases resulting from the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
“We hope to conclude lawsuits this year,” Klaus Ziehe, spokesman for the Brunswick state prosecutors office in Lower Saxony state, where Volkswagen is headquartered, told Automobilwoche, a sister publication of Automotive News Europ.
In America, Volkswagen has agreed to pay $157.45 million to settle environmental claims from 10 states over its excess diesel emissions and it includes compensation to US owners of affected models, a situation it has not repeated in the UK despite calls for similar treatment.
So far, VW in Britain has repaired almost half of the affected 1.2 M vehicles in a rolling programme which it hopes to complete this year, VW said last week at the launch of its newest Golf model.