Engine maker Cummins Inc. will recall 600,000 Ram trucks as part of a settlement with federal and California authorities that also requires the company to remedy environmental damage caused by illegal software that let it skirt diesel emissions tests.
New details of the settlement, reached in December, were released Wednesday. Cummins had already agreed to a $1.675 billion civil penalty to settle claims – the largest ever secured under the Clean Air Act – plus $325 million for pollution remedies.
That brings Cummins’ total penalty to more than $2 billion, which officials from the Justice Department, Environmental Protection Agency, California Air Resources Board and the California Attorney General called “landmark” in a call with reporters Wednesday.
I wonder if the fix will nerf the engines like the VW diesels.
I don’t see how it could NOT affect power output.
But the thing about recalls is they’re completely voluntary. You don’t have to bring your truck in to have it fixed.
Inspection stations in California will probably check the recall status so that will at least cover that for the State concerned by it.
I have no idea what the penalty is, but I expect these trucks would fail any ‘rigorous’ emissions test.
This stuff can be programmed into the ECU so that it is a switch that you flip.
In that specific case it’s different since it’s something from the manufacturer and not an aftermarket reprogramming, but yes the owners could simply turn around and get an aftermarket setup instead.
Its time to buy a ram if you live not in California
If your bring your truck in to a dealer the dealer often will automatically apply all recalls. Cummins can also get third party mechanics involved. While the dealer or mechanic knows their customer doesn’t want this recall applied, they also have various other legal issues that are even more important - dealers may risk their entire dealership if they get caught not applying this recall.
That these vehicles are recalled can also be tracked other ways. If governments really care they will not renew your license without proof that the recall was applied. (I don’t think they have ever done this but is in their power)
EPA only requires recall tracking for 18 months. After that they give up. Also:
Enforcement of emissions regulations are very reliant on state inspection programs, and not every state has an inspection program.
In this case, Cummins would only contract with outside mechanics if dealers were unable to handle the volume or modifications. If an owner brings their vehicle to a third-party, Cummins is still responsible for paying for the fix. But in this case the fix seems to be an update to the ECU, which is generally only accomplished at a dealer.
Driver licensing/vehicle registration is handled by the states, and would only be in jeopardy if a state has an inspection program.
The EPA reserves the right to extend a recall program, and in this case the publicity certainly warrants it. But aside from living in a CARB state or having to pass a different inspection, there’s no enforcement of recall compliance.
these owners aren’t likely to bring their truck in to get ‘fixed’.
Don’t see how it could be any other way.
If Cummins could manufacture and sell compliant engines which met performance goals and customer expectations, they would. Writing has been on the wall for tampering with diesel engine emissions in the US for a while now.
I hope it at least makes them quieter so I can sleep at night but I won’t hold my breath.
Unlikely. That would require adding in significant sound deadening to almost the entire engine bay and restricting exhausts more than they already are with diesel particulate filters and cats. If you ever check out the car audio enthusiasts, you can see they easily spend a few thousand applying deadening materials to their vehicles and increasing their weight to boot.
Over the course of a decade, hundreds of thousands of Ram 2500 and 3500 heavy duty pickup trucks – manufactured by Stellantis – had Cummins diesel engines equipped with software that limited nitrogen oxide pollution during emissions tests but allowed higher pollution during normal operations, the governments alleged.
In all, about 630,000 pickups from the 2013 through 2019 model years were equipped with the so-called “defeat devices” and will be recalled. Roughly 330,000 more trucks from 2019 through 2023 had emissions control software that wasn’t properly reported to authorities, but the government says those didn’t disable emissions controls. Officials could not estimate how many of the recalled trucks remain on the road.
Stellantis deferred comment on the case to Cummins, which has denied allegations made by the government and is not admitting liability, according to court documents.
The engine maker said in a statement that Wednesday’s actions do not involve any more financial commitments than those announced in December. “We are looking forward to obtaining certainty as we conclude this lengthy matter and continue to deliver on our mission of powering a more prosperous world,” the statement said.
Cummins also said the engines that were cited but are not being recalled did not exceed emissions limits. Punishment for the unreported software is included in the penalty, the company said.
As part of the settlement, Cummins will make up for smog-forming pollution that resulted from its actions.
Preliminary estimates suggested its emissions bypass produced “thousands of tons of excess emissions of nitrogen oxides,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland previously said in a prepared statement.
The Clean Air Act, a federal law enacted in 1963 to reduce and control air pollution across the nation, requires car and engine manufacturers to comply with emission limits to protect the environment and human health.
The transportation sector is responsible for about one-third of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and much of that stems from light-duty vehicles. Limits aim to curb the amount of emissions from burning gasoline and diesel fuel, including carbon dioxide and other problematic pollutants.
“We increasingly are finding that the public health impacts from emissions from cars are really devastating and it is one of our biggest sources also of emissions leading to climate change,” said Jacqueline Klopp, director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development at the Columbia Climate School.
“To the extent that vehicle manufacturers are trying to evade our emission standards that are our biggest tool for protecting us from these public health impacts and climate change, these kinds of fines for evasion are hopefully a very important deterrent,” she added. “There are profound justice and equity issues around air pollution produced by transport emissions.”
Diesel exhaust is harmful to human health; it’s a carcinogen. Long-term exposure to ozone-creating nitrogen oxides can cause health issues like respiratory infections, lung disease, and asthma.
Officials said Wednesday it was not lost on them that the Cummins settlement follows several other notable emissions cheating cases involving the auto industry in recent years.
Wednesday’s details come seven years after German automaker Volkswagen agreed to plead guilty to criminal felony counts following investigations into its use of similar defeat devices, a massive emissions scandal known as Dieselgate.
The company installed software in certain model year 2009-2015 diesel vehicles across its brands, circumventing emissions standards and emitting up to 40 times more pollution than those standards allow. Volkswagen said 11 million vehicles across the globe were equipped with the pollution controls.
In 2017, the automaker agreed to pay a $2.8 billion criminal penalty in addition to $1.5 billion in separate civil resolutions.
Fiat Chrysler saw similar consequences in 2019 for failing to disclose defeat devices used to make vehicle emission control systems function differently during emission testing. More than 100,000 EcoDiesel Ram 1500 and Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles were sold in the U.S. with the unauthorized software.
The automaker agreed to pay a $305 million civil penalty to settle the claims of cheating emission tests in 2019.
In 2020, Daimler, the auto parent of Mercedes-Benz, agreed to a $857 million civil penalty as a result of its disclosure failures and claims over its violations of the Clean Air Act.
“There’s a lot of sunk money into diesel engines and people making profits off of diesel engines,” Columbia’s Klopp said. “Unless you give them a really big fine and a really big deterrent, they’re willing to pay the fines to get those profits. That’s really sad because it puts the profits before the health of our communities.”
Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate solutions reporter. Tom Krisher is Associated Press auto writer.
Most assholes who drive those will deliberately not fix them because they want emmisions to be as high as possie to „own the libs” or whatever.
That philosophy is so fucking weird to me.
Do they want to breathe dirty air? Forget the environment for a moment, isn’t clean air just nice to have?
Rhetorical questions, I know there’s no logic in it.
Real men breathe coal dust and asbestos, clean air is for pussies.
I have no doubt there are people who legit think this.
I wouldn’t bring it in because the “fix” will be to hobble the engine and make it worse, namely lower power, and a big decrease in mpg.
Big decrease in mpg? Is the fix going to make the cars less efficient?
Very likely. Higher NOx out of the engine generally means lower fuel consumption, so the fix will likely decrease the real world mpg that owners were seeing.
I’ve not yet seen any technical information on the defeat device, but from my time in the industry I can make an educated guess how it will play out
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There probably won’t be a decrease in power, as it was likely an aftertreatment issue (sizing, durability, cost cutting) that made them decide to use a defeat device. Cummins would retrofit every cheating engine with a brand new aftertreatment system at great cost rather than reduce the power of their engines. The brand damage of reducing power would far outweigh any repair and warranty costs.
This exact thing happened previously with the RAM eco diesel (2014-2016-ish). The ‘fix’ negatively impacted the performance of the truck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MmSUAOwpRY
Luckily my truck doesn’t have any emissions equipment, or after treatment garbage on it to worry about.
Dieselgate II: Carbon Dioxide Boogaloo
$325 million for pollution remedies.
Yes, pay us, so um, we can….fix…it
1.675 billion plus 325 million equals the 2 billion amount Cumins is paying.
Your comment reads like you think Cumins is being paid.
No, I’m saying the government is fining them some for “damages”, but what will become of that money?
The money goes to fix the (600,000) problem(s) they lied about which is gaseous emissions being larger than what they advertised/told the EPA it would be.
Executives get away with 0 repercussions again!
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Sounds like we need another EV charging network made that is treated like a redheaded stepchild like Electrify America is.
Can you elaborate? I don’t understand you comment. Didn’t most companies agree to a charging standard?
People who own them could care less…the more emissions the better probably
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