Fiat Chrysler is accused of having violated the laws of the united states on the pollution of the air by concealing the existence of a software on 104.000 of its vehicles in the United States, paving the way for a new “dieselgate” after the scandal at Volkswagen.
The group of american-Italian has immediately dismissed the accusations and denied any parallel to his rival German and expressed the desire to resolve “fairly” in this case with the future administration to Trump.
According to the american authorities, Fiat Chrysler has installed this software controversial on models of the Jeep Cherokee and vans tray (pick-ups) Dodge Ram 500, manufactured between 2014 and 2016, but would not have informed the authorities as the law required.
“once again, a major automobile manufacturer has taken the business decision to circumvent the rules and get caught,” said the owner of the agency california environmental (Carb), Mary Nichols, who is involved in the investigation with its federal counterpart of the EPA.
According to the latter agency, the vehicles Fiat Chrysler equipped with these “auxiliary emission” emit into the air a level of “increased” nitrogen oxide, a gas responsible for many respiratory ailments, as they have yet been licensed by the authorities.
The EPA said it had discovered eight different tracks of this software which may “alter the manner in which a vehicle emits pollutants,” says the press release.
“The concealing a software that affects the emissions in an engine is a serious violation of the law that may result in pollution harmful to the air that we breathe,” said Cynthia Giles, one of the officials of the EPA.
The environmental agency is said to have made this discovery by conducting new tests after the admission in September 2015, by Volkswagen that it had equipped 600,000 of its cars in the United States of a software truqueur intended to distort the outcome of pollution control.
According to the EPA, the manufacturer shall incur civil penalties, a maximum of more than $ 4 billion. But the agency provides, however, that it will continue to investigate “the impact and nature” of the mechanism and be on guard for the moment to talk about a “software truqueur” comparable to that used by Volkswagen.
– the ‘Damn law’ -
Put on the bench of the accused, Fiat Chrysler is vigorously defended.
“We’re not trying to violate the damn law (…) we are trying to do an honest day’s work,” responded the CEO of Fiat Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, adding that the problem could have been resolved in a manner “more in tune with the business world”.
The boss has admitted that his group would have had to be more transparent but has however denied that it was a software truqueur “because we’re not trying to rig anything”.
The group, which was saved from bankruptcy in 2009, is already facing two complaints recent collective accusing him of using a software allowing to pass without incident the tests anti-pollution while the levels of actual emission rates are higher.
The charges of the EPA, in any case, heavily sealed the title Fiat, which has lost up to 16% in Milan and fell even by more than 10%, to 20: 15, on Wall Street, where its rating has been temporarily suspended.
This folder there will be a first indication of the intentions of the president-elect Donald Trump, who has repeatedly blasted the weight of environmental regulations on economic activity and described the climate change “hoax”.
The EPA is, itself, one of the black beasts of the elected republicans in Congress who have continued to decrease its budgetary allocations.
Fiat Chrysler is in any case already put on very good terms with the future administration in rehoming the last week the construction of a model manufactured in Mexico in the United States and creating 2000 jobs were created, a decision immediately hailed by Mr. Trump.
This new case arises, moreover, in the aftermath of a new and crucial step in the scandal of the dieselgate involving Volkswagen in the United States.
on Wednesday, the German giant has pleaded guilty to “conspiracy” and”obstruction of justice” and agreed to pay $ 4.3 billion in penalties, bringing the total bill for the scandal to almost $ 22 billion on the United States alone.
The us authorities have, in total, indicted seven former and current executives or employees of VW and have promised to continue their investigation to bring those responsible to justice.
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12/01/2017 21 :47 :58 – Washington, 12 jan 2017 (AFP) – © 2017 AFP
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