Cummins to Pay Nearly $1.7 Billion in Settlement Over Vehicle Emissions Test Cheating -- OPIS
10 Enero 2024 - 5:12PM
Noticias Dow Jones
The Department of Justice on Wednesday said it had reached a
proposed settlement with Indiana-based diesel engine maker Cummins
over alleged violations of the Clean Air Act and California law
that included the use of software "defeat devices" that
circumvented emissions testing and certifications requirements.
Under the proposed settlement, Cummins agreed to pay a $1.675
billion in civil penalty -- the largest ever assessed in a Clean
Air case -- and spend more than $325 million to remedy the
violations related to the defeat devices, DOJ, EPA, the California
Air Resources Board and the California attorney general said in a
joint statement.
Cummins must also "complete a nationwide vehicle recall to
repair and replace the engine control software in hundreds of
thousands of RAM 2500 and RAM 3500 pickup trucks equipped with the
company's diesel engines," the agencies said.
The Dodge RAM series pick-up trucks are among the best-selling
vehicles in the U.S. marketed by Stellantis -- formed from the
merger of Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler and the French
PSA Group.
The proposed deal will also require the company to "extend the
warranty period for certain parts in the repaired vehicles, fund
and perform projects to mitigate excess ozone-creating nitrogen
oxides emitted from the vehicles and employ new internal procedures
designed to prevent future emissions cheating," the statement
said.
The settlement is valued a total of more than $2 billion, the
agency said.
NOx pollution contributes to the formation of harmful smog and
fine particulate matter in air, according to the EPA. Nitrogen
dioxide formed by NOx emissions can aggravate respiratory diseases,
particularly asthma, and may also contribute to asthma development
in children.
A Cummins spokesman said in a statement that Wednesday's
settlement "marks another step toward concluding that four-year
review."
EPA said it discovered defeat devices in Cummins engines used in
RAM pickup trucks through its testing protocol. It said tests of
RAM trucks were done as follow-up on a 2015 EPA warning to
manufacturers that the agency planned to conduct special testing to
"identify defeat devices using driving cycles and conditions that
were non-standard, but still reflected normal vehicle operation and
use."
In a related set of complaints filed on Wednesday, the U.S. and
California alleged that nearly 1 million model year 2013-2023 RAM
2500 and RAM 3500 pickup trucks with Cummins diesel engines
"utilized undisclosed engine control software features, and more
than 630,000 of trucks made in model years 2013-2019 had illegal
emissions control software defeat device features."
The settlement requires Cummins to work with Fiat Chrysler and
its dealers on a "vehicle recall and repair program that will
remove all defeat devices from the affected 2013-2019 RAM trucks."
The repair only involves software updates, and Cummins has begun
the recall and repair program, the agencies said.
As part of the settlement, Cummins will "make a lump sum payment
to CARB of slightly more than $175 million to fund mitigation
actions or projects that reduce NOx emissions in California through
CARB mitigation programs," according to the news release.
For the rest of the country, Cummins will "secure offsetting NOx
reductions by working with railroad locomotive owners on two types
of locomotive emission reduction projects," which include replacing
high-emission locomotive engines, among other steps.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which
is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from
Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Frank Tang, ftang@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeff
Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 10, 2024 17:57 ET (22:57 GMT)
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