Cummins Diesel Cheats Emissions Tests - Fined $1.6B by US
Cummins Diesel Cheats Emissions Tests - Fined $1.6B by US
The U.S. Justice Department has accused truck engine manufacturer Cummins of sneaking software onto trucks that bypass emissions controls.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12134129
Cummins Diesel Cheats Emissions Tests - Fined $1.6B by US
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Whoa, a 10-figure fine *for a giant corporation!? About time they made that shit hurt!
Then you'll love to hear how VW paid a $2.8 billion fine (in 2017) when they were caught doing the same thing!
VW probably had way more cars involved though, so the cost per car was lower.
I wouldnt underestimate how many cummins engines there are, lots of trucks, tractors and other large machines use them, some of which run constantly. If anything i would say they got off lighter than VW
VW also has a revenue that’s almost 10x as much as Cummins. It’s a “cost of doing business” write off for both of them, but a more expensive one for Cummins comparatively
And VW cratered due to consumer backlash. For Cummins, this is a marketing opportunity.
That was just one of the many cases. In total, dieselgate cost VW $38 billion. On top of that, a lot of their executives ended up in prison.
Unfortunately, every other automaker (well, except Tesla for fairly obvious reasons) did the same thing, some worse than VW, and barely got any punishment.
From reading the article, it was approximately 1 million vehicles in violation, all pickup trucks. That works out to $1,600 per vehicle.
Don't take this the wrong way—the fine is large, but $1,600 on vehicles that sell for fifty times that still seems... thin.
This is Cummings, they make the engines, not the truck. I have no clue what they charge car companies for their engines but I know it is a lot closer to $1,600 than the cost of the completed truck.
You can buy a Cummins crate engine for $10,000. Assuming that’s a large markup compared to the negotiated amount I’m sure the vehicle manufacturers got, I would bet they’re being fined around 20 percent of what they made off of selling the engines to manufacturers.
Probably not enough to kill the company, but definitely enough to make them think twice on doing it again (almost like what fines should be….).