FCA Hit With Amended Class-Action Claiming Ram Trucks Used Two Defeat Devices

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is getting a double dose of bad news as the company has been hit with an amended class-action lawsuit which claims at least two defeat devices were installed in 2007-2012 Ram 2500 and 3500 trucks equipped with the Cummins 6.7-liter diesel engine.

According to the law firm of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, the amended lawsuit comes on the heels of additional research which allegedly showed the trucks are equipped with a defeat device that can detect when they are on a dynamometer. The lawsuit claims the defeat device enables the trucks to pass emissions tests during “routine testing conditions” in the lab but then allows them to produce higher emissions during real-world driving.

The lawsuit goes on to say the models are equipped with a second defeat device that involves the diesel particulate filter (DPF). According to the law firm, “The location of the NOx adsorber catalyst is in front of the DPF” so “passive regeneration does not occur often enough to allow the 2007-2012 Dodge RAM 2500 and 3500 trucks to operate reliably without active regenerations.” The firm went on to say this claim was backed up by real-world testing of plaintiff vehicles using a device which logs the number of active regenerations while driving.

The lawsuit goes on to say “Cummins introduced a defeat device to dramatically increase the active regeneration frequency. In stop-and-go driving, the 2007 vehicle performed active regeneration 15.8 percent of the vehicle miles traveled, 10 times the frequency allowed in the federal emissions test.”

The lawsuit, which can be read here (PDF), claims FCA and Cummins committed fraudulent concealment, false advertising and violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It also alleges the companies violated “consumer-protection laws by intentionally misleading the public, concealing emissions levels, illegally selling noncompliant polluting vehicles, knowingly profiting from the dirty diesels and using fraudulently gained emissions credits from the EPA to use on further production of high-polluting vehicles.”

The amended lawsuit comes at a bad time for FCA as Bloomberg reports the company’s CEO, Sergio Marchionne, harshly criticized the company’s head of U.S. communications after he denied the automaker used defeat devices. In an e-mail unveiled in court on Monday, Marchionne told Gualberto Ranieri “Are you out of your goddam (sic) mind?” He went on to say Ranieri should be fired as his actions were “utterly stupid and unconscionable.”

While the statements could look like an admission that FCA used defeat devices, the automaker downplayed the e-mail by saying “It is understandable that our CEO would have a forceful response to any employee who would opine on such a significant and complex matter, without the matter having been fully reviewed through the appropriate channels.”