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Renault is already hustling to clean up its European diesels

Shortly after being pegged for having high diesel emissions, the French automaker is planning recalls and software updates to address the issue.

Andrew Krok Reviews Editor / Cars
Cars are Andrew's jam, as is strawberry. After spending years as a regular ol' car fanatic, he started working his way through the echelons of the automotive industry, starting out as social-media director of a small European-focused garage outside of Chicago. From there, he moved to the editorial side, penning several written features in Total 911 Magazine before becoming a full-time auto writer, first for a local Chicago outlet and then for CNET Cars.
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Last week, Renault was the subject of a police investigation looking into diesel-vehicle emissions. While the company wasn't caught installing defeat devices, some of its vehicles were found to be polluting more than is legally permissible. Thankfully, Renault's already devised a solution.

Reuters reports that Renault is frequently called out for its diesel emissions output, and the first of two moves -- a planned software upgrade -- should alleviate matters some. "We are the first ones to admit we have room for improvement," said Thierry Bollore, Renault's Chief Competitive Officer.

Renault told Reuters that the number of vehicles eligible for software reflashes could reach as high as 700,000, but the final number would likely be much lower. The automaker will announce more details in March, with voluntary engine checks taking place four months or so thereafter.

Renault did not immediately return a request for comment.

That's not Renault's only diesel-emissions issue at the moment. It will also recall more than 15,000 examples of its Captur crossover to address an issue with its emissions. Apparently, a fault in the Captur's computer could shut down its exhaust-treatment system entirely, sending emissions levels through the roof.

Meanwhile, the company that kick-started this whole mess -- Volkswagen -- remains in talks with US officials with no official fix on the books. VW attempted to push a fix past regulators, but it was shot down due to a lack of specificity, among other reasons.