Company fined nearly $2 billion over illegal modifications on pickup trucks: 'They inflict real harm on people'
www.thecooldown.com
The U.S. Justice Department has accused truck engine manufacturer Cummins of sneaking software onto trucks that bypass emissions controls.
  • EmpricornEnglish
    40·
    9 months ago

    Whoa, a 10-figure fine *for a giant corporation!? About time they made that shit hurt!

      • Artyom@lemm.ee
        121·
        9 months ago

        VW probably had way more cars involved though, so the cost per car was lower.

        • Desmond373@slrpnk.net
          161·
          9 months ago

          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

        • kautau@lemmy.world
          71·
          9 months ago

          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

        • OhmsLawn@lemmy.world
          4·
          9 months ago

          And VW cratered due to consumer backlash. For Cummins, this is a marketing opportunity.

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        9 months ago

        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.

    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
      191·
      9 months ago

      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.

      • mikezane@lemmy.world
        5·
        9 months ago

        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.

        • Clusterfck@lemmy.sdf.org
          6·
          9 months ago

          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….).