Ford owns up to emissions irregularity
Ford joins a long line of carmakers admitting to dodgy fuel figuresLawyers and prosecutors are already scrambling after US-based Ford Motor Company confessed last Thursday that its published fuel economy and emissions figures were wrong.
While Ford hasn’t confirmed how widespread the problem is, the initial focus is on the Australian-developed 2019 model Ranger mid-sized pickup.
The company confirmed it had hired an outside expert to investigate how it got fuel-economy data wrong, with its confession leading to a slight dip in its share price overnight.
While insisting it did not have a “defeat device” like the one used by the Volkswagen Group to skirt official test procedures, Ford still faces huge fines and possible class-action lawsuits.
Group vice-president for sustainability, environment and safety engineering, Kimberly Pittel, said Ford employees raised their concerns that the mileage and emissions data given by Ford to government officials were incorrectly calculated.
Pittel confirmed Ford voluntarily shared the information with both the US Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board this week.
A statement from the EPA insisted the information Ford provided was, “too incomplete for EPA to reach any conclusions. We take the potential issues seriously and are following up with the company to fully understand the circumstances behind this disclosure".
It’s not the first time Ford has messed up its published official fuel-economy figures. It was forced to cut seven miles per gallon from the C-Max hybrid’s claims – and compensate owners – in 2013 after customers complained they couldn’t match the published mileage. It then cut the claimed mileage from six other models a year later.
There has been a major clampdown on fuel-economy and emissions claims in the US since Dieselgate struck in 2015, costing the Volkswagen Group more than $US25 billion.
South Korea’s Hyundai and Kia were forced to pay $US300 million and paid out another $US400 million in class action suits after misquoting its economy figures in 2013. The fine prodded Mercedes-Benz, Ford and Mini to lower their fuel-economy claims.
FCA was fined $US77 million this month after it failed to meet fuel economy requirements in 2016.
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