BMW AG said it doesn’t cheat on emissions tests, responding to a report in German magazine Autobild that the X3 sport utility vehicle exceeded the European limit for air pollution.

The stock fell as much as 9.7 percent, the most in more than four years, on concerns that the luxury-car maker would be enmeshed in the diesel-emissions scandal that led to the resignation ofVolkswagen AG’s chief executive officer on Wednesday.

A four-wheel-drive variant of the BMW SUV had emissions more than 11 times the European limit when road-tested by the International Council on Clean Transportation, the same group whose tipoff led U.S. regulators to investigate a gap between the emissions VW and Audi diesel-powered cars in the testing lab and on the road, Autobild said.

“The BMW Group does not manipulate or rig any emissions tests,” the Munich-based company said in a statement in response to the report. “We observe the legal requirements in each country.”

BMW said it’s not familiar with that road test and that there’s no system in its cars that responds differently to tests than it would operate on the road. Volkswagen has admitted to installing software designed to circumvent regulations by turning on full emissions controls only when the car detects it’s being tested.

Two other studies by ICCT showed that BMW’s X5 SUV and 13 other BMW vehicles tested comply with legal requirements on emissions of lung-irritating nitrogen oxides, BMW said.

David Fuller's view

BMW is even cheaper (est p/e 8.18, yield 3.85%), and I will give it the benefit of the doubt unless the firm is proven guilty during this investigation of automobile manufacturers. 

Following VW’s admission, the bigger story going forward is likely to be a long-term decline in vehicles which run on diesel fuel.