The French manufacturer will have to answer for suspicions of aggravated deception regarding the polluting emissions of its diesel vehicles, with a hearing scheduled for April 2027.
The car manufacturer Renault will be tried before the Paris criminal court for aggravated deception in the context of the vast “Dieselgate” scandal. This trial comes more than ten years after the start of the scandal which implicated several large groups for practices of concealing the polluting emissions of their diesel vehicles.
The diamond brand is the second manufacturer to be sent to trial in France after the German Volkswagen. In total, four manufacturers – Renault, Volkswagen, Peugeot-Citroën and Fiat Chrysler – are in turmoil in France due to this scandal, all indicted during the year 2021.
For Renault, the investigating judge issued this referral order on Friday, which was notified to the parties on Monday, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Monday July 27. This referral is in accordance with the prosecution’s requisitions taken in June 2025.
Suspicions of aggravated deception on broadcasts
The manufacturer is suspected of having “specially calibrated” Euro 5 and Euro 6 standard vehicles marketed between 2009 and 2017 so that they respect the regulatory parameters during approval tests but not in a normal situation, according to the prosecution’s requisitions of which AFP is aware.
This alleged deception is aggravated by the fact that this calibration may have favored atmospheric pollution with nitrogen oxides, “particularly favoring the appearance of respiratory diseases in humans”. The public prosecutor reported an “assumed optimization strategy”, taken in a “collegial” manner.
Renault’s trial is not expected for many months. The fixing hearing, a procedural step allowing in particular to determine the dates, is scheduled for April 1, 2027.
Renault reacted, in a press release, by affirming that it would defend “its innocence, the professionalism and the ethics of its 100,000 employees” in court.
