BMW and Daimler Move Against Executives Over Diesel Tests on Monkeys
- 6 years ago
BMW and Daimler Move Against Executives Over Diesel Tests on Monkeys
FRANKFURT — The German carmakers BMW and Daimler said on Wednesday
that they had taken action against executives involved in an organization that sponsored emissions experiments on monkeys, as the companies tried to squelch a public outcry that threatens to tarnish the image of Germany’s most important exports.
Researchers there exposed one group of the monkeys to exhaust from a late-model diesel Volkswagen;
a second group was exposed to exhaust from an older Ford diesel pickup truck.
The company did not disclose his name, but a report by the organization summarizing its activities from 2013 to 2015, said the carmaker
was represented by Udo Hartmann, whose title was head of Daimler’s group environmental protection and energy management
Over the last 20 years, diesel cars have taken a strong hold on the European market, thanks in large part to regulations
that made them cheaper to fill up than gasoline-powered cars.
In this instance, the monkeys were being used to try to help the companies sell diesel cars by showing
that emissions were less harmful than many scientists had maintained.
Public outrage has been further inflamed — and has spread to BMW
and Daimler — by the carmakers’ use of monkeys as test subjects in what was effectively a marketing campaign.
The falloff began after Volkswagen was caught in 2015 using software to conceal excess emissions by its diesel cars.
BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen financed the organization and all three companies had representatives on its board.
FRANKFURT — The German carmakers BMW and Daimler said on Wednesday
that they had taken action against executives involved in an organization that sponsored emissions experiments on monkeys, as the companies tried to squelch a public outcry that threatens to tarnish the image of Germany’s most important exports.
Researchers there exposed one group of the monkeys to exhaust from a late-model diesel Volkswagen;
a second group was exposed to exhaust from an older Ford diesel pickup truck.
The company did not disclose his name, but a report by the organization summarizing its activities from 2013 to 2015, said the carmaker
was represented by Udo Hartmann, whose title was head of Daimler’s group environmental protection and energy management
Over the last 20 years, diesel cars have taken a strong hold on the European market, thanks in large part to regulations
that made them cheaper to fill up than gasoline-powered cars.
In this instance, the monkeys were being used to try to help the companies sell diesel cars by showing
that emissions were less harmful than many scientists had maintained.
Public outrage has been further inflamed — and has spread to BMW
and Daimler — by the carmakers’ use of monkeys as test subjects in what was effectively a marketing campaign.
The falloff began after Volkswagen was caught in 2015 using software to conceal excess emissions by its diesel cars.
BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen financed the organization and all three companies had representatives on its board.