Renault will face a criminal trial in France on aggravated fraud charges over accusations that devices in its diesel cars were designed to cheat clean air laws, the public prosecutor's office told French news agency AFP.
The French carmaker will be the second referred to criminal court in France after Volkswagen over what has become known as the 'dieselgate' scandal.
The scandal erupted in September 2015 when German automaker Volkswagen admitted fitting millions of vehicles with software to make engines appear less polluting in regulatory tests than in real driving conditions.
It caused waves in the global car industry, ensnaring several other top carmakers and leading to legal action in multiple countries, including the United Kingdom, France, South Korea and the United States.
The order sending the case to trial was signed on Friday and the decision communicated to the parties on Monday.
An investigating judge is still reviewing a similar request by prosecutors to send Peugeot-Citroen and Fiat Chrysler – now part of Stellantis – to trial.
The first procedural hearing for the Renault trial is scheduled for April 2027.
"Renault Group will defend its innocence, as well as the professionalism and ethics of its 100,000 employees, before the criminal court," the company said in a statement.
"The operating limits of the emission control systems strictly reconcile emissions reduction with driver safety," said the carmaker. "Renault Group firmly disputes having committed any wrongdoing."
It alleged that foreign hedge funds were behind the investigation, in the hope of financial gain.
To date, Volkswagen has paid more than €32 billion in penalties over the scandal, mostly in the US.
The prosecutor's office said in documents reviewed by AFP that Renault vehicles sold between 2009 and 2017 were equipped with devices that allowed them to detect emissions tests and meet the regulatory thresholds, but emitted more pollutants under normal driving conditions.
It said such devices contributed to higher atmospheric pollution of nitrogen oxides that are suspected of "provoking the development of respiratory diseases in humans".
(with newswires)
