Quality test manipulated?
Report: Conti supplied customers with contaminated hoses
09/23/2022, 4:50 p.m
According to a media report, the automotive supplier Continental has been supplying its customers with contaminated parts for air conditioning systems since 2006. According to the report, the number of vehicles in which the defective parts have been installed is likely to be in the millions.
According to a magazine report, the automotive supplier Continental has apparently been supplying car companies with contaminated parts for air conditioning systems for over 15 years. In order to conceal the quality defects, test results are said to have been manipulated on a large scale, as reported by “Spiegel”, citing an internal investigation by the group.
At the end of 2021, a task force came to the conclusion that a good 69 percent of series production did not achieve the desired cleanliness values at that time. Customers included BMW, Mercedes-Benz, VW and Renault as well as Asian manufacturers. According to the report, the number of vehicles in which the defective parts have been installed since 2006 is likely to be in the millions.
Conti confirmed “deviations in the air conditioning line systems” that were identified by employees themselves and reported to the compliance department. Personnel and technical consequences have been drawn. “Depending on the results of the investigation, more may follow.” The responsible authorities and the affected customers were informed immediately.
The company emphasized that the affected air conditioning hoses never posed a risk to vehicle occupants, road safety or the environment, as the product was installed in a closed air conditioning circuit. The dirt particles in the micro range did not get into the breathing air. A recall of the affected vehicles is not necessary, said a Conti spokesman. The functionality of the air conditioning systems is “not significantly restricted”.
Manipulations were also known to executives?
The magazine also reported that the concern was the subsidiary ContiTech, where the manipulations were apparently even known to executives. The public prosecutor’s office in Hanover was informed about the case. A spokeswoman for the authority said on request that the case was not part of the ongoing investigation against Continental.
The public prosecutor’s office had extended their long-running investigations into the diesel scandal last fall to ex-CEO Elmar Degenhart, the recalled CFO Wolfgang Schäfer and a former board member of the former Powertrain division. According to the investigating authority, the number of suspects in these proceedings has meanwhile increased to 61.