Arizona filed suit Thursday against a maker of diesel engines and Fiat Chrysler America, which installed them in Ram 2500 and 3500 pickup trucks, accusing both of defrauding consumers by selling vehicles that polluted more than advertised.
Attorney General Kris Mayes is seeking financial relief on behalf of Arizona customers who purchased the pickups and paid a premium for them. There were about 23,000 such vehicles sold in the state, her office says. Those who purchased them have to file consumer fraud complaints with the Attorney General’s Office to be eligible for compensation through any verdict or settlement.
In the legal papers, Mayes contends Fiat Chrysler America promoted and sold trucks as having “clean’’ diesel engines made by Cummins Inc.
They did pass both Environmental Protection Agency standards and state emissions tests. But she said the only reason is because the vehicles had a “defeat device’’ that would sense when they were being tested, a device that artificially reduced pollutants during testing below what occurs in normal driving conditions.
Cummins already agreed to a nearly $1.7 billion settlement with the EPA and the California Air Resources Board.
It also agreed to recall more than 600,000 Ram 2500 and Ram 3500 pickups with that diesel engine and spend another $325 million to extend warranties and take other action.
Even if the Arizona buyers have had the vehicles repaired by Cummins — or even if they no longer have them — there is still the possibility of financial compensation, Mayes’ office said. The key is that Arizonans paid more for these allegedly clean-burning diesel vehicles.
“They paid a premium that they never should have had to pay — and probably wouldn’t have paid had they known there was an illegal emissions control device inside their car,’’ Mayes told Capitol Media Services Thursday.
The lawsuit pegs that premium at upwards of $9,000 compared with identical gas-powered vehicles.
“These folks obviously wanted a clean-burning truck and they didn’t get it,’’ she said. “And so we’re trying to get that premium back.’’
Mayes said the failure to disclose the defeat devices and the marketing of so-called clean-burning vehicles — she says FCA, now known as Stelantis was in on it — was deliberate.
“These two companies took advantage of Arizonans’ rightful desire to buy cleaner cars,’’ she said.
“We have an enormous air quality problem and Arizonans are trying to do their part to deal with it,’’ the attorney general continued. “They shouldn’t be deceived and cheated in that process.’’
All that, the lawsuit says, fits under the definition of consumer fraud in state law.
How much that compensation might be in this case is not known, Mayes’ office said.
The lawsuit is similar to one filed in 2016 against Volkswagen by Mark Brnovich, the prior attorney general, over similar allegations of not-as-advertised clean burning diesel engines.
That ended with about 11,000 Arizonans each able to claim up to $1,000, above anything buyers were able to get directly from VW as part of a separate nationwide settlement.
Diesel engines are more powerful. The lawsuit quotes Car & Driver magazine saying you would need an 8-liter gas engine to get the same amount of power as a 6-liter diesel engine.
The engines are also more efficient. “Each gallon of diesel fuel produces more energy than a gallon of traditional gasoline, allowing vehicles with diesel engines to achieve higher gas mileage,’’ Mayes’ legal papers state.
But there is a flip side.
“In addition to being more expensive, diesel fuel engines are more harmful to the environment than gasoline engines in that, among other things, they emit substantially more particulate matter and NOx (oxides of nitrogen) than gasoline engines,’’ according to the lawsuit. “Controlling diesel engine emissions requires tradeoffs — power and performance are often sacrificed to ensure compliance with emissions regulations.’’
The defeat devices allow the companies to have their diesel vehicles pass EPA emissions testing and receive the legally required “certificates of conformity’’ necessary to sell them in the United States.
There was no immediate response from Cummins or Fiat Chrysler America.
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