...GREEN MEANS GO
UP TO 75,000 UK TAXI AND PH DRIVERS COULD TAKE LEGAL ACTION AGAINST MERCEDES-BENZ IN EMISSIONS SCANDAL
Tens of thousands of hackney and private hire drivers in the UK could bring a legal claim worth up to £5,000 each against Mercedes- Benz after the German car giant was accused of cheating emissions tests. London litigation law firm Harcus Parker is investigat- ing claims on behalf
of 500,000 UK Mer- cedes owners - in- cluding 75,000 owners of diesel Mercedes V-Class and Vito taxis - that the luxury car man- ufacturer installed unlawful ‘defeat de- vices’ to dodge emissions laws. This meant that while, in tests, the vehicles appeared to conform with EU emissions regula-
tions, once out on the road they actu- ally pumped out up to ten times more potentially lethal NOx (i.e. Nitrogen Oxide and Nitrogen Dioxide) emissions than they are al- lowed to emit. Harcus Parker claims that cus- tomers overpaid for their vehicles as a result of the alleged defeat device and
are entitled to com- pensation. Lawyers are also concerned that, after a ‘fix’ is applied, Mercedes drivers could see higher fuel and ser- vicing bills, and – although it is too early to tell - there may also be a drop in resale prices. It is estimated that as many as 250,000 Me r c e d e s -Be n z taxis in Europe and
DYNAMO MOTOR COMPANY TO CREATE 50 JOBS FOLLOWING INVESTMENT
Dynamo Motor Com- pany, located in Coventry, has re- ceived a £1.25m loan from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) and Maven Capital Part- ners. According to Busi- ness Live, it will enable Dynamo to recruit and train 50 new employees. The Dynamo taxi is an all-electric vehi- cle and is made in association with Nissan, being based on the Japanese car maker’s e-NV200 MPV EV. Its new recruitment drive is part of a plan to scale-up production capacity. Brendan O’Toole, founder and CEO at Dynamo, said: “We are delighted to receive this funding package and are ex- tremely passionate about creating a product that is envi-
JUNE 2020
The Dynamo Taxi Company says run- ning and servicing costs of its Dynamo vehicle are approxi- mately 15 per cent of a current equiva- lent diesel or petrol taxi.
ronmentally friendly and meets the needs of both the drivers and passen- gers. “We have been working on our product offering for several years and are looking forward to ramping-up pro- duction and getting more zero emissions taxis out into the world.” The Dynamo taxi was launched late last year and is pow-
ered by a 40kW bat- tery and can drive up to 187 miles on a single charge. The first Dynamos are already on the streets of London but its makers hope it will soon be a common sight in other UK cities, including Coventry. The company has also had interest from several coun- tries in Europe, as well as the UAE and Singapore.
Speaking about the investment in Dyn- amo, Andy Povey, investment manager at Maven, said: “We are pleased to pro- vide MEIF funding to Dynamo. “The business is led by an experienced management team that is capable and well suited to driv- ing this project. “We are looking for- ward to supporting the business as it embarks on this new phase of its growth journey.” The Dynamo Motor Company's Factory in Exhall is currently closed temporarily because of Covid- 19.
up to 75,000 in the UK could be fitted with defeat devices similar to those used by Volkswagen – last month, the High Court ruled that the software used by Volkswagen was a ‘defeat device’, contrary to European law. All diesel Mercedes V-Class or Vito vehi- cles, commonly used in London, that were manufac- tured between 2014 -2018 could be affected, as could all standard Mer- cedes cars manu- factured since 2011. Damon Parker, man- aging partner at Harcus Parker, said: “Mercedes owners purchased these ve- hicles in part be- cause of the reputa- tion for engineering quality and prestige that the Mercedes- Benz brand com- mands. My clients are deeply disap- pointed that, rather than applying that technical know-how to the problem of making cars greener and more appropri- ate for our towns and cities, Mercedes appears to have chosen the easy route, presumably as a way to maximise profits. “The issues in play are particularly ac- ute for taxi drivers, who tend to buy vehicles based on their expected life- span and green credentials. The un- certainty brought about by the use of
these defeat de- vices is worrying for my clients and taxi drivers generally.” Mercedes’ German parent company was fined Eur870m last year in a Stuttgart court for negligently failing to supervise the pro- duction of these vehicles by installing the devices. In issuing the fine, the court took account of “gains from the sale of the affected vehicles and saved expenses for the production of vehicles that comply with the regulatory require- ments”. Mercedes has been slow to recall vehi- cles in the UK, as it is appealing the reg- ulatory findings which were made against it in Ger- many, where it was forced to recall hun- dreds of thousands of cars Mr Parker added: “We expect, and in some cases have already seen, that Mercedes will issue a recall and provide owners with the opportunity to have their vehicles ‘fixed’. My clients have heard stories of reliability issues and perfor- mance damage in other vehicles which have been forced to have similar proce- dures applied to them. They do not want to suffer a simi- lar fate, particularly in circumstances in which their liveli- hoods are at stake.”
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