Cummins will fix 600,000 diesel engines on Ram trucks
Company is accused of illegally installing software allowing for emission circumvention
The Department of Justice has ordered a recall of 600,000 Ram trucks as part of a settlement that directs engine maker Cummins Inc. to remedy environmental damage it caused when it illegally installed emissions control software in several hundred thousand vehicles, skirting emissions testing.
It released new details of the December settlement Wednesday.
Cummins is accused of circumventing emissions testing by using devices that can bypass or defeat emissions controls. The engine manufacturer will pay a previously announced $1.675 billion civil penalty to settle claims — the largest ever secured under the Clean Air Act — plus $325 million on remedies.
That brings Cummins' total penalty to more than $2 billion, which officials from the U.S. Justice Department, Environmental Protection Agency, California Air Resources Board and California Attorney General called “landmark” in a call with reporters Wednesday.
“Let this settlement be a lesson: We won't let greedy corporations cheat their way to success and run over the health and wellbeing of consumers and our environment along the way,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said.
Over the course of a decade, hundreds of thousands of Ram 2500 and 3500 pickup trucks — manufactured by Stellantis — were equipped with Cummins diesel engines that incorporated the bypass engine control software. This includes 630,000 installed with illegal defeat devices and 330,000 equipped with undisclosed auxiliary emission control devices.
Officials could not estimate how many of those vehicles are currently on the road, but Cummins — which has maintained it has not done anything wrong — must undergo a nationwide recall of more than 600,000 noncompliant Ram vehicles.
Stellantis deferred comment on the case to engine maker Cummins, which 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 are not being recalled did not exceed emissions limits.
As part of the settlement, Cummins will make up for smog-forming pollution that resulted from its actions.
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.
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.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.