~20% Of Lorries Operating In Eastern Europe Use “AdBlue Killers” To Defraud Regulators, Research Finds

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

New research from the University of Heidelberg (commissioned by the German television station ZDF) has seemingly confirmed earlier assertions by the German trade group Camion Pro that a significant fraction of lorries operating in Eastern Europe are utilizing so-called “AdBlue killers” to circumvent the use of the actual NOx-reducing fluid AdBlue while still qualifying for the various tax and toll reductions that vehicles using AdBlue qualify for.

The research suggests that the initial estimate from Camion Pro that around 20% of lorries operating in Eastern Europe are circumventing the NOx reduction technology while claiming otherwise is accurate.

With regard to the defrauding, ZDF quoted a toll expert in its coverage (which aired last month on ZDF’s magazine program Frontal 21) that the lost revenue was apparently costing Germany around €110 million a year in lost revenue — not an insubstantial figure.

Perhaps more importantly, though, is that the fraud relates to around 14,000 tonnes of NOx being emitted yearly that wouldn’t be emitted if the lorries in question were actually using AdBlue, as their operators claim.

Transport & Environment provides more:

“The technology that masks the absence of the NOx reduction system is made up of small electronics components, which have become known in the haulage industry as ‘AdBlue killers’. Although installation techniques are openly demonstrated on YouTube and other internet video sites, it appears few enforcers are aware of the scandal. The ZDF programme showed a team carrying out a manipulation in Romania, with one member saying: ‘You don’t need to worry about Germany — the police there don’t know about this.’ …

“By turning off the system, users are claiming tax and toll reductions even though emissions are vastly higher than the levels that qualify for the financial incentives. The German car buyers’ website autoankauf.de said: ‘A number of German motorists haven’t engaged with the VW scandal and may not engage with this one. Sadly, it’s only the environment that suffers, and motorists seem largely unaffected by it all.’”

That last part is very likely true. News like this has become something that a great many people simply shrug about, and don’t care to think about. And yet … health outcomes are getting worse and worse in many regards, rates of a great number of now common health problems seem to be rising year by year, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight to this trend. Unless, of course, one has been keeping a close eye on the state of anthropogenic climate change. … Cheers to “homo sapiens sapiens.”


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

James Ayre has 4830 posts and counting. See all posts by James Ayre