Dirty diesels grow to 51 million across EU, as carmakers still put profit before clean air

T&E’s analysis of new real-world emissions data and official recalls shows an increase of 18% over the past 12 months and a stark 74% rise since 2016. The increase is in part due to new sales over the past year, and in part to new evidence on real-world emissions of more diesel models. Almost one fifth of these polluting cars and vans circulates in Germany (9.9 million), followed by France (9.8 million) and the UK (8.5 million). When numbers for Italy, Spain and Belgium are added, these 6 countries represent 81% of the whole EU dirty diesel fleet.