EuroWire July 2017

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Transatlantic cable
July 2017 27
In January, that testing led the EPA to accuse Fiat Chrysler
Automobiles NV of installing diesel Jeep SUVs and Ram pickups
with emission controls without the proper disclosures. The
agency has since refused to certify that Fiat Chrysler’s diesel Jeep
Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 pickup variants conform to USA
tailpipe rules amid talks with the company to resolve the issues.
† As for Daimler, by mid-spring it had put considerable e ort
into trying to get its diesels approved by the EPA. But, wrote
Mr Beene on 10th May, “[You can] put that process on hold as
the 2017 model year enters its nal months.”
Of related interest . . .
† Even as it was second-guessing its USA diesel commitment,
Mercedes-Benz was recruiting Utah-based Vivint Solar to
introduce its home battery storage solution in the United
States. By summer, Vivint was to start selling the Mercedes
home batteries in California, to new customers only.
As noted by Sean O’Kane in the Verge (18th May), Mercedes
batteries for the home are functionally the same as those
from Tesla (Palo Alto, California), its most visible competitor
in this category and another car maker with an ambitious
side business. Both companies’ batteries let homeowners
store and save electricity generated by solar panels for use
around the clock.
But a small but important di erence provides prospective
customers with a choice. As described by Mr O’Kane, Tesla’s
$5,500 Powerwall 2 has a capacity of 13.5 kilowatt-hours
(kWh). The Mercedes home battery has a smaller capacity of
2.5kWh.
O setting this, Vivint’s o erings will be cheaper than Tesla’s.
The company plans to sell a basic 2.5kWh package for $5,000
for pairing with solar panels; while the complete 20kWh
system will run around $13,000, including installation.
A USA investigation into Fiat Chrysler
emissions controls raises the question of
what constitutes a ‘defeat device’
A civil complaint, led on 23rd May in Detroit, is the formal
accusation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) that
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) tted defeat devices to
some of its vehicles. It follows the noti cation in January
of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) probe of the
Italian-American company’s compliance with the Clean Air Act
in the USA. Since then, other countries, including the UK and
France, have also said they were investigating the car maker.
BBC business correspondent Theo Leggett was asked just
how serious this is for Fiat Chrysler. (“US Accuses Fiat Chrysler
of Using ‘Defeat Devices,’” 23rd May). “It isn’t into Volkswagen
territory yet,” said Mr Leggett. “For a start, the number of
vehicles is much smaller. But there’s also the question of what
is, and what isn’t, a defeat device.” Volkswagen admitted it
could not both make its cars clean enough to pass emissions
tests and ensure their good performance on the road. So, wrote
Mr Leggett, “It designed a software tool to do just that.”
Fiat Chrysler has been accused of tting software to its cars –
not disclosed to regulators – enabling the vehicles to produce
lower emissions during roadworthiness tests than they did when
under normal driving conditions.