Porsche Cancels Sale of Cayenne Diesel; Audi Pulls Diesel Cars From Site

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Porsche announced Wednesday that it would stop selling its Cayenne Diesel model after regulators announced those cars were allegedly installed with an illegal “cheat device” to fool emissions tests.

Audi removed all diesels vehicles from their online configurator, even though the Q7 diesel was not mentioned by the Environmental Protection Agency has having a “defeat device” installed. The luxury brand has not yet announced any stop-sale of its cars. Volkswagen’s Touareg TDI, which is equipped with the same engine as Porsche and Audi, is still currently listed as on sale.

On Monday, the EPA announced it had uncovered a “temperature conditioning” program in cars equipped with Volkswagen’s 3-liter diesel engine timed exactly to federal emissions tests that reduced nitrogen oxide emissions in those cars. Volkswagen refuted the claims that it had installed an illegal cheat device in those cars.

In a separate statement, Porsche North America said it was “surprised” by the revelation that its Cayenne could illegally pollute.

The EPA notified Porsche that its 2015 Cayenne Diesel included the software, however Porsche’s stop-sale extends to 2014-2016 cars.

More information as the story develops.

Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • PeterKK PeterKK on Nov 04, 2015

    Does anyone honestly believe that VW was the only one doing this?

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    • 05lgt 05lgt on Nov 04, 2015

      Yes PeterKK. The original university testing specifically cited BMW and possibly another brand as not having the same issue or at least to not nearly the same extent. It does seem that VW went far out on a limb by themselves, advertised that their diesels were cleaner and more efficient than anyone else's, sold cars that every forum said were under rated in both horse power and fuel efficiency in ways no one else's diesels were, and were full of $41t the whole time. Sorry about your brand affiliation.

  • Voyager Voyager on Nov 04, 2015

    This just came in. The institute that tests cars to determine whether they are road legal in the Netherlands (RDW), is going to test ALL diesel cars that are available in the Netherlands to find out if cheating devices are being used. That means that cars from a total of 22 brands will be tested. The testing will take six to eight months. I wouldn't be surprised if the testing will be expanded to include gasoline cars too. The RDW has developed new testing methods. Within the EU the Netherlands was the only country that voted in favor of enforcing the latest emission standards. However, last week the EU agreed to allow diesel cars to exceed them by 60%.

    • RobertRyan RobertRyan on Nov 04, 2015

      @Voyager, Once Gasoline cars are included, then those tests could have an impact Globally

  • CarnotCycle CarnotCycle on Nov 04, 2015

    Still odd reading headlines about Porsche-diesel anything.

    • See 1 previous
    • DenverMike DenverMike on Nov 05, 2015

      @Big Al from Oz Criminal acts by VW, Porsche and Audi, just exposed weaknesses in emissions "testing". Except what's becoming abundantly clear is the need for tightening up and reforming the "tests", especially in Europe. And all this "gaming" tunes/mapping or entire engines, needs to stop. Eco Boost? Turbo gas engines, simply for the sake of smaller engines doing the work of bigger/simple engines, supposedly with better FE, are becoming popular because of these weaknesses.

  • Kurtamaxxguy Kurtamaxxguy on Nov 04, 2015

    As of 8:20 PST, 11/4/15, VW USA appears to have removed references for Touareg TDI models. Only the Gasoline V6 engine models are listed.

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