EPA: Fiat Chrysler diesels have software to thwart emissions controls
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Megan Geuss
On Thursday the US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) announced that Fiat Chrysler (FCA) diesel vehicles were
found to have "at least eight" instances of undisclosed software that
modified the emissions control systems of the cars. The vehicles
implicated in the EPA's Notice of Violation (NOV)
include 2014, 2015, and 2016 diesel Jeep Grand Cherokees, as well as
Dodge Ram 1500 trucks with 3.0-liter diesel engines. The allegations
involve 104,000 vehicles, the EPA said.
The EPA says it's still in talks with FCA and
hasn't ordered the company to stop selling affected cars yet, nor is it
officially calling the software a "defeat device" just yet until FCA
provides a more detailed explanation.
In a press conference, agency officials said
that the undisclosed software was discovered after September 2015, when
the EPA and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) began doing
additional testing on vehicles in the wake of the Volkswagen Group
scandal.
VW Group was discovered to have almost 600,000 diesel vehicles on US roads with some kind of illegal software on them.
The software allowed VW Group's cars to pass emissions testing under
lab conditions but would reduce the effectiveness of emissions controls
under real-world driving conditions, causing the cars to emit nitrogen
oxide (NOx) far in excess of federal limits.
According to the EPA, FCA's undisclosed
software works similarly, too. EPA Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles
told press Thursday morning that the "software is designed such that,
during the emissions test, Fiat Chrysler’s cars meet the standards," for
NOx emissions. However, the
"software reduces the effectiveness of emissions controls when driving
at high speed or for long durations," she added.
These kinds of workarounds are not uncommon for car makers to use and
are not illegal if they're properly disclosed and approved by the EPA.
But efforts to meet emissions standards have driven automakers to
install undisclosed devices illegally for decades. In fact in the 1970s,
Chrysler—along with GM, Ford, American Motors, Nissan, and Toyota—was
reprimanded by the EPA for installing defeat devices in its cars to
"defeat the effectiveness of emission control systems under conditions
not experienced during EPA’s certification testing." In some instances
the defeat devices helped the cars start more easily in cold weather, in
others, time-delay switches cut the emissions control systems while the
cars shifted from low to high gears.
Giles noted during the EPA's press conference
that the agency has tested other diesel vehicles since the Volkswagen
scandal was made public and found no violations. "It is by no means
impossible to make a clean diesel vehicle that meets our standards," she
said.
In a statement (PDF),
FCA said it would continue to work with the EPA to resolve the issue.
"FCA US diesel engines are equipped with state-of-the-art emission
control systems hardware, including selective catalytic reduction (SCR).
Every auto manufacturer must employ various strategies to control
tailpipe emissions in order to balance EPA’s regulatory requirements for
low nitrogen oxide (NOx)
emissions and requirements for engine durability and performance, safety
and fuel efficiency. FCA US believes that its emission control systems
meet the applicable requirements."
FCA added that it had spent "months providing
voluminous information" to the EPA and other regulators. The company
said it had also made proposals to fix the issues, including "developing
extensive software changes to our emissions control strategies that
could be implemented in these vehicles immediately to further improve
emissions performance."
FCA has not yet been sued, but the EPA says it
could be "liable for civil penalties and injunctive relief for the
violations alleged in the NOV [Notice of Violation]."
Correction: This
story originally said the EPA found the software on the FCA diesels was
illegal. In fact, the EPA is still determining whether the software
itself was illegal. However, Fiat Chrysler violated EPA rules by not
disclosing the software.
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