Daimler recalls thousands of Mercedes-Benz diesel vehicles

FRANKFURT: German carmaker Daimler is recalling hundreds of thousands of Mercedes-Benz vehicles including Sprinter van models over diesel emissions issues. Daimler said late on Friday that Germany’s road traffic regulator KBA has concluded hearings over certain Mercedes-Benz vehicles with so-called OM651 diesel engines meeting Euro 5 emission standards and has ordered Daimler to carry out recalls. Weekly Bild am Sonntag on Sunday reported a recall of Mercedes-Benz Sprinter vehicles was imminent after KBA warned the luxury carmaker that the transporter vans may contain illegal engine management software. “The customers of Mercedes-Benz will be notified in writing over further actions if their vehicle is subject to the recall and a software update can be installed,” the company said. Daimler said a “medium six figure” number of vehicles would be affected by the recall, including 260,000 Sprinter vans from a previous generation of vehicles that went out of production in 2016, and that it was fully cooperating with the regulator. — Reuters