The U.S. government announced on Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board approved the sale of the new 2016 BMW diesel X5 after the testing found that the car is not using a software to cheat emissions standards.

As reported on Reuters, the EPA spokeswoman Laura Allen said that the agency, along with California and Canada, was doing additional testing before approving new diesel vehicles. Allen said that the EPA's screening tests found no evidence of a defeat device in the 2016 BMW X5.

Following Volkswagen's emission test scandal few months ago, the U.S. environmental regulators and Transport Canada have been reviewing all current diesel passenger cars, trucks and SUVs for sale to ensure that they did not have the software to cheat the test.

The 2016 BMW diesel X5 SUV along with GM pickups were the only non-VW  new diesel vehicles awaiting the new emission tests and certification.

In September, the U.S. EPA said that the German automaker Volkswagen built and installed software in about half of a million diesel cars sold since 2008. The software allowed the cars to pass federal emission tests by releasing higher than acceptable levels in everyday driving situations.

Recently the Volkswagen group announced that it is close to end its investigation on emission scandal and estimated that the vehicles affected to the scandal are far fewer than originally believed to be affected, according to Autocar. A total of only 36,000 cars worldwide are affected and will be recategorised.

BMW had decided to put a temporary hold on the 2016 diesel X5 production for the U.S. market until the EPA's new emission testing and certification were completed.

This week, BMW announced that the diesel X5, known as the X5 xDrive35d, will be going into production shortly at the company's manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The car is expected to be on sale next month.

The new 2016 BMW X5 model is said to be the most luxurious and efficient X5, according to Telegraph. The diesel X5 or X5 xDrive35d is powered by the N57 diesel turbocharged plant with a 3.0 liter inline six cylinder which produces 255 horsepower at 4000 rpm.

The peak torque is available from 1500 to 3000 rpm with an eight-speed automatic transmission, up from the six-speed auto in last generation's X5 diesel. The car has an improved EPA rating of 24 MPG city, 31 MPG Hwy.

The 2016 BMW X5 xDrive35d has been the only diesel powered model sold in the U.S. Diesel vehicles sales represent 5.9 percent of total vehicle sales in the U.S. in 2014.