Stellantis has been making news frequently these past months, but generally not for particularly positive reasons. From slumping sales to the sudden departure of the company’s chief executive, the company and its family of brands could really use a mark in the win column. Unfortunately, 2025 is off to a rocky start as the company finds itself again embroiled in the throes of another emissions scandal.
The California Air Resource Board (CARB) announced that Stellantis and its FCA USA business unit have agreed to pay nearly $4.2 million to resolve yet another California investigation into excess emissions. If this storyline sounds familiar, it’s because this is the third major settlement between the automaker and CARB in the past five years. In 2022 the company paid a fine of $5.6 million for similar violations involving gasoline-powered vehicles. That same year the company was ordered to pay a staggering $300-million settlement between it and the US Department of Justice in pleading guilty to criminal conspiracy charges related to diesel emissions fraud. Back in 2019 the company was also sued by CARB for the use of defeat devices to the tune of $500 million. And none of these include the record-breaking $1.675-billion fine levied against Cummins in 2023 which involved its engines used in RAM pickups.
This most recent dustup is a bit more obscure and involves RAM ProMaster vans built from 2014 to 2016 and equipped with the company’s 3.0-liter inline four-cylinder diesel engine. CARB alleges that it has discovered the use of undisclosed emissions equipment on the vans that caused them to emit more nitrogen oxides (NOx) than they were originally certified for. The organization claims that the result of these non-compliant RAM ProMaster 1500, 2500, and 3500 series vans was the release of an additional 55 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions.
For those unfamiliar, RAM first introduced the ProMaster cargo van in North America for the 2014 model year. Having not offered a full-size van in this market since the company’s bankruptcy in 2009, the newly created Fiat Chrysler Automobiles opted to bring a version of its Fiat Ducato van to the US and Canada. The ProMaster was fit with either a 3.6-liter gasoline V6 engine or an Iveco 3.0-liter four-cylinder turbodiesel that was branded EcoDiesel. This engine made 174 hp with 295 lb-ft of torque and was available with an automated manual transmission. The diesel engine was discontinued after the 2018 model year.
As part of this most recent settlement, Stellantis has agreed to recall the effected ProMaster vans to modify the emissions system and bring them into compliance. While the scope is unclear, RAM sold roughly 90,000 total ProMaster vans spanning 2014 to 2016. The final cost of the settlement rings in at $4,185,820, with roughly $2 million of that in civil penalties that will go toward the agency’s Air Pollution Control Fund. The remaining balance will be used to fund a project aimed at incentivizing ocean-going cargo vessels to slow their speeds in specific zones during the whale migration season and at times of high air pollution.