TRANS Cummins To Pay $1.67 Bln To Settle Engine Emission Control Claims (Ram truck owners and any diesel, pay attention)

[Cacheman]

Cummins To Pay $1.67 Bn To Settle Engine Emission Control Claims

US engine maker Cummins Inc has agreed to pay $1.67 billion to settle claims it installed devices to defeat emissions controls in hundreds of thousands of pickup truck engines, the Justice Department said Friday.

www.barrons.com

Cummins To Pay $1.67 Bn To Settle Engine Emission Control Claims​

AFP - Agence France Presse

3–4 minutes

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The Justice Department said US engine maker Cummins has agreed to pay $1.67 bn to settle emission control claims​

Tom Brenner


US engine maker Cummins Inc has agreed to pay $1.67 billion to settle claims it installed devices to defeat emissions controls in hundreds of thousands of pickup truck engines, the Justice Department said Friday.

The penalty is the largest civil fine ever for a violation of the Clean Air Act, which requires vehicle and engine manufacturers to comply with emissions standards, the department said.

Cummins, which is based in Columbus, Indiana, was accused of installing defeat devices in the engines -- parts or software that can bypass emissions controls or render them inoperative.

Defeat devices and auxiliary emission control devices were allegedly installed on nearly one million engines produced since 2013 for RAM pickup trucks, which are made by Stellantis.

Stellantis referred questions about the matter to Cummins, which said the "company has seen no evidence that anyone acted in bad faith and does not admit wrongdoing," according to a company statement.

Cummins said it had already recalled 2019 Ram 2500 and 3500 trucks and initiated a recall for other vehicles with the devices.

The company expects to incur one-time costs of $2.0 billion for the settlements, which must receive court approval.

Cummins "looks forward to obtaining certainty as it concludes this lengthy matter," the company said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department "is committed to vigorously enforcing the environmental laws," describing the Cummins devices as having "a significant and harmful impact on people's health and safety."

"Our preliminary estimates suggest that defeat devices on some Cummins engines have caused them to produce thousands of tons of excess emissions of nitrogen oxides," he said.

"The cascading effect of those pollutants can, over long-term exposure, lead to breathing issues like asthma and respiratory infections."

The German automaker Volkswagen was found by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 2015 to have installed emissions control-defying software in diesel-powered cars in a scandal which came to be known as "Diesel gate."

The Justice Department said that the $1.67 billion to be paid by Cummins to the US government and state of California is the second-largest ever environmental penalty, topped only by the more than $20 billion settlement reached with BP in 2015 for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Shares of Cummins fell 3.0 percent in afternoon trading.

Video discussing this and how it affects the future of diesel. RT12:48

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0lpqRVAldk&t

 

[Firebird]

More EPA witch hunting?

 

[hiwall]

the $1.67 billion to be paid by Cummins to the US government and state of California

And the Dems in California get their cut.

 

[Profit of Doom]

Didn’t Volkswagen do something like this?

 

[ktrapper]

Black Smoke Matters!!

 

[rbt]

GS 2022 dodge cummings bought new, recalled part took engine out. Dodge is slow playing the fix, he’d taken truck in on recall said they’d put him on list didn’t have parts. Told him yesterday probably going to need a lawyer

 

[Dobbin]

Owner USED to own a VW Diesel Golf. "Best riding and handling car I ever owned" was his pronounced opinion.

He says his car was actually produced before the EPA settlement range, so he was not eligible to take part in the settlement.

Of more concern to him was when he bought the car, diesel and gasoline were roughly "neck in neck" the same price at the pump. He looked forward to a fuel savings of 25 percent over the equivalent gasoline powered car.

And this was true for a short time. Since then, a "low sulfur" diesel fuel has been mandated by your EPA, and, according to Congress, was only going to add 14 cents a gallon to the price of diesel. A 14 cents which quickly expanded to more than fifty cents during his car ownership. And which now has expanded further to more like a dollar per gallon extra.

What has happened is that fuel retailers have figured out that both gas and diesel can be priced according to "cost per mile." Diesel by virtue of its superior thermodynamics automatically gets 25 percent better mileage than gasoline engines. So the fuel retailers take advantage of this and charge correspondingly 25 percent more per gallon for diesel.

Its now a matter of "law of supply and demand." If diesel is of better advantage in mileage, then fuel suppliers charge extra for diesel to profit from that advantage.

So Owner when his diesel volkswagen failed, did not replace it with a diesel car. Instead he bought a Prius - and now gets nearly 60mpg - which is better than the VW diesel ever thought of being.

Dobbin

 

[Lone_Hawk]

Owner USED to own a VW Diesel Golf. "Best riding and handling car I ever owned" was his pronounced opinion.

He says his car was actually produced before the EPA settlement range, so he was not eligible to take part in the settlement.

Of more concern to him was when he bought the car, diesel and gasoline were roughly "neck in neck" the same price at the pump. He looked forward to a fuel savings of 25 percent over the equivalent gasoline powered car.

And this was true for a short time. Since then, a "low sulfur" diesel fuel has been mandated by your EPA, and, according to Congress, was only going to add 14 cents a gallon to the price of diesel. A 14 cents which quickly expanded to more than fifty cents during his car ownership. And which now has expanded further to more like a dollar per gallon extra.

What has happened is that fuel retailers have figured out that both gas and diesel can be priced according to "cost per mile." Diesel by virtue of its superior thermodynamics automatically gets 25 percent better mileage than gasoline engines. So the fuel retailers take advantage of this and charge correspondingly 25 percent more per gallon for diesel.

Its now a matter of "law of supply and demand." If diesel is of better advantage in mileage, then fuel suppliers charge extra for diesel to profit from that advantage.

So Owner when his diesel volkswagen failed, did not replace it with a diesel car. Instead he bought a Prius - and now gets nearly 60mpg - which is better than the VW diesel ever thought of being.

Dobbin

You left out the additional federal taxes that they lumped on to diesel.

 

[Tristan]

More EPA witch hunting?

They have an agenda.

They're following it assiduously.

 

[Dobbin]

You left out the additional federal taxes that they lumped on to diesel.

Owner hasn't mentioned that - but he left the VW in 2015 - this may have happened since.

Of course "The big truck operators are going to be forced to 'shoulder their burden' and pay the additional 'road' taxes."

Like big business ever pays for ANY tax.

Dobbin

 

[AlfaMan]

Knew this was going to happen.

Thankful I'm not in the middle of this one (I did the VW TDI recall, all 850,000 vehicles). This one is at the very very early stages; don't expect anything to pop up on this for the next 10 months to a year. They don't even have a remedy for this yet, and I don't think it's just a software/ECU reflash either.

 

[Millwright]

I don't think it's just a software/ECU reflash either.

OHHHHH

It can be.

 

[Firebird]

Knew this was going to happen.

Thankful I'm not in the middle of this one (I did the VW TDI recall, all 850,000 vehicles). This one is at the very very early stages; don't expect anything to pop up on this for the next 10 months to a year. They don't even have a remedy for this yet, and I don't think it's just a software/ECU reflash either.

I traded out of my Cummins in October, I just had a bad feeling, and knew deep down I needed to do something

 

[BH]

I worked for a software company many years ago that did interfaces and custom code involving semi on-board networks with an emphasis on ECM (engine control modules). Back then, several of the engine manufactures included code in the ECM that could determine if the engine was on a dyno or on the open road. Emission controls allowed meeting standards on the dyno, but allowed the trucks to pull heavy loads up mountains. To think this was also not the case on private vehicles would be naive. I think the VW recall was for this specific reason.

 

[Dobbin]

I think the VW recall was for this specific reason.

Owner has spoken on this. He says the on-board computer was programmed to "know" when the external monitor was plugged in - and would "turn on" the emissions control for the testing - which otherwise was turned "off."

So in a way, I would guess the VW "dodge" was more egregious than most.

Dobbin

 

[L.A.B.]

Didn’t Volkswagen do something like this?

Had one of each.

Felt Dodge RAM-TOUGH & Filty-Little-Lying-Jet-ah TDI at the same time.

2004 Patriot Blue SB 4x4 RAM TD H/O Carbon Soot Blast Furnace w/ 50 gallon across the bed accessory fuel tank.

How I miss being dirty!

 

[Millwright]

I traded out of my Cummins in October, I just had a bad feeling, and knew deep down I needed to do something

Just means you'll have to spend more on another one.

Duramax, in '18 they went to a locked ECM.

Couldn't re-flash it, at the time. Had to buy a blank, unlocked ECM and put the program you wanted in it. $4-large, IIRC.

Took a coupla years for the superhackers to crack that one.


The big thing to be aware of with diesel trucks is the injector pump. Bosch CP-4s are known to grenade.

All the big-3 used a variant of that pump. The best fix is to swap it for the older CP-3....bulletproof.

 

[Capt. Eddie]

produced since 2013

Glad mine is a 2012. Last year before DEF. May or may not have other "modifications". Also glad we live in an inspection free state.