(ANSA-AFP) - BERLIN, 22 LUG - Investigators in Germany,
Switzerland and Italy are searching several sites over suspicion
that vehicles built by Fiat Chrysler and Iveco groups may have
been fitted with illegal defeat devices, as the "dieselgate"
emissions scandal widened. Coordinated cross-border raids were
being carried out at "ten commercial properties" across the
three countries, the public prosecutor for the German state of
Hesse said in a statement. Fiat Chrysler and Inveco's parent
company CNH Industrial later issued statements confirming that
their offices were among those searched. Both said they were
"providing full cooperation" with officials. The automobile and
industrial vehicle groups are suspected of having installed
so-called "defeat devices" into their vehicles in order to
illegally cheat on emissions tests. Such devices make vehicles
appear to spew fewer harmful pollutants in the lab than on the
road. Prosecutors suspect they may have been used in Iveco
vehicles and those of Fiat Chrysler subsidiaries such as Alfa
Romeo, Fiat and Jeep. (ANSA-AFP).
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