Will FCA negotiate with the United States for the Dieselgate case?

27 October 20213 years ago babelfish

According to Reuters, FCA could reach an agreement with the American authorities on the Dieselgate scandal, pleading guilty to criminal conduct and paying a sum of 250-300 million dollars. All the details

According to the Reuters agency, which first reported the news, the car manufacturer Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is close to reaching an agreement with the American authorities regarding the so-called "Dieselgate": that is, that case, which broke out six years ago. in the United States, relating to the manipulation of diesel engines carried out by some automobile companies (mainly the German Volkswagen was involved) with the aim of circumventing vehicle emissions controls.

THE FCA AGREEMENT

The Dieselgate also struck FCA (later merged, together with the French PSA, in the Stellantis group) which today – according to the revelations of Reuters – is negotiating with the American Department of Justice: it will pay a penalty of 250-300 million dollars and will plead guilty of criminal conduct, thus resolving the lengthy legal case relating to the manipulation of the emissions of Ram pick-ups and Jeeps (both FCA brands).

WHAT VOLKSWAGEN DID

Volkswagen already pleaded guilty to fraud, obstruction of justice and various falsifications in 2017: the agreement with the American authorities provided for the payment of sanctions of 4.3 billion dollars and put an end to the scandal about the "rigged" emissions of almost 600 thousand vehicles .

THE INVESTIGATION ON FCA

The investigation into FCA, on the other hand, concerns about 100 thousand diesel vehicles which, according to the accusation, have evaded the emission requirements: more specifically, these are models dated 2014, 2015 and 2016 and destined for the US market.

Meanwhile, next year an FCA engineer, Emanuele Palma (arrested in September 2019 in the United States), will be put on trial on charges of misleading the US regulatory authorities on the pollution levels of diesel vehicles, and of having continued even after the outbreak of the Volkswagen scandal.

Last month in Vigarano Mainarda, in the province of Ferrara, Sergio Pasini , a fifty-three-year-old engineer was arrested. Last March, an international arrest warrant was issued by the United States for the “Dieselgate” case.

FCA has already paid the United States about $ 800 million to settle a Department of Justice civil lawsuit related to circumventing the minimum emission requirements for its vehicles.

THE IMPACT OF DIESELGATE ON THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

The Dieselgate case had the effect of putting diesel technology in a bad light and accelerating the automotive industry's transition to electric mobility. In fact, European manufacturers had focused heavily on diesel engines, presenting them as useful for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as a "bridge" to electric vehicles; however, when investigations – both in America and Europe – showed that the true emission levels of diesel cars were much higher than those reported, the technology that had hitherto been used to slow the transition to electric fell.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/fca-dieselgate-stati-uniti-patteggiamento/ on Wed, 27 Oct 2021 14:15:28 +0000.