Back in January of this year, the EPA declared that the EcoDiesel models of FCA products were in violation of the Clean Air Act and that they couldn’t sell them until they were in compliance. From that point it’s been a long back and forth between the government and the company to figure out how to get past this impasse and bring the extremely-popular vehicles to market.
This is good news. For starters, the EcoDiesel is still being produced and customers can purchase it. Recertification is, luckily for FCA, an option for them unlike what happened during the Volkswagen diesel scandal. In that situation, recertification involved new equipment that adjusts power and performance. For FCA, their update is all software.
Additionally, FCA believes that their update can be applied to all previous EcoDiesel models, making them compliant with the EPA and CARB without hurting the performance that customers expect.
The full release is below.
View Press Release
FCA Announces Certification of 2017 Model-year Diesel Vehicles
July 28, 2017 , Auburn Hills, Mich. – FCA US LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) (NYSE: FCAU / MTA: FCA), announced today that it has received a certificate of conformity from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a conditional executive order from the Air Resources Board (ARB) of the State of California, permitting the production and sale of FCA US 2017 model-year light-duty Ram 1500 and Jeep® Grand Cherokee vehicles equipped with 3.0-liter diesel engines.
The agencies’ approval was the product of several months of collaboration between FCA US and the EPA and ARB to address the agencies’ concerns with respect to the diesel emissions control technologies employed on earlier model-year versions of these vehicles. The 2017 updates include modified emissions software calibrations, with no required hardware changes, and FCA US expects that the modified calibrations will have no effect on the stated fuel economy or the performance of these vehicles.
FCA US intends to continue to work closely with the agencies and seek their permission to use a version of the modified software to update the emissions control systems in the 2014-2016 model-year Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 diesel vehicles that were the subject of the Notices of Violation issued by EPA and ARB in January 2017. FCA US believes that the modified software can address the agencies’ concerns as to the emissions performance of those vehicles.
“The approvals announced today represent a significant step toward resolving the issues raised by EPA and ARB,” said Sergio Marchionne, Chief Executive Officer of FCA US and FCA. “We appreciate the efforts of the agencies in working with us to achieve this milestone. We are anxious to build on this progress to make appropriate updates to the emissions control software in our earlier model-year vehicles.”
Chad Kirchner is the Editor-in-Chief of Future Motoring, along with the main host and producer of the Future Motoring podcast. In addition to his work here, he's a freelance automotive journalist for outlets around the world.
Chad Kirchner
