Carmakers chose to cheat to sell cars rather than comply with emissions law, ‘dieselgate’ trial told

Mercedes, Ford, Renault, Nissan and Peugeot/Citroën face group action in which damages could exceed £6bn

Car manufacturers decided they would rather cheat to prioritise “customer convenience” and sell cars than comply with the law on deadly pollutants, the first trial day of the largest group action in English legal history has been told.

More than a decade after the original “dieselgate” scandal broke, lawyers representing 1.6 million diesel car owners in the UK argue that manufacturers deliberately installed software to rig emissions tests.