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FCA US put on probation, Stellantis to pay $300M for emission scheme

DETROIT — FCA US, formerly known as Chrysler Group, was placed on probation for three years Monday and ordered to pay roughly $300 million for deceiving regulators about diesel emission systems on 101,000 Jeep Grand Cherokees and Ram 1500 trucks. The sentence was part of an earlier agreement. FCA in June pleaded guilty to conspiracy in federal court in Detroit. Engineers were accused of using software tricks and taking other steps to meet U.S. emission standards while marketing the vehicles as “clean EcoDiesel.” The vehicles were diesel Jeep Grand Cherokees and Ram 1500 trucks from the 2014, 2015 and 2016 model years. FCA now is part of Stellantis. “Stopping violations of environmental laws and the defrauding of consumers is paramount to the protection of clean air and human health," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said. Separately, three FCA employees face charges in the investigation. In 2017, Volkswagen was ordered to pay a $2.8 billion criminal penalty for cheating on U.S. diesel emissions tests. The company also paid $1.5 billion in a civil case brought by the government and said it would spend $11 billion to buy back cars and offer other compensation. Government/Legal Green Jeep RAM Emissions Truck SUV Diesel Vehicles ecodiesel

Jeep hiring 1,000 part-time workers in Toledo on Wrangler, Cherokee demand

The new Jeep Cherokee has been quite a success for Chrysler, but its factory workers are getting tired. The automaker has agreed to hire up to 1,000 part-time, temporary employees at its Toledo Assembly Complex where the CUV and Wrangler are built. It will allow the company to keep Jeep production moving, while giving laborers a break.
According to plant manager Chuck Padden in the Toledo Blade, full-time workers are regularly taking on 60 hours a week, and it's beginning to wear on them. "To get them more time off is important to us, to make sure they're refreshed, and can work safely," said Padden.
Chrysler has already hired 380 temporary, part-time workers for the plant, and 50 have been converted to full-time employees. The company is in the process of interviewing the rest of the new hires now and plans to have all 1,000 in place by the summer. They will work between 10 and 30 hours a week mostly on weekends for $15.78 per hour with limited benefits. The temporary positions will last "as long as demand continues for the Jeep Wrangler and the Jeep Cherokee," said Jodi Tinson, Chrysler spokesperson for manufacturing and labor communications, to Autoblog in an email.

Chrysler delays 2014 Jeep Cherokee media launch

Chrysler is making the unusual move of delaying the first media drives of the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, which were slated to start next week in Seattle. And while something like this is a rare occurrence, and one that most of the Autoblog staff can't recall happening this publicly or so close to the event itself, it won't effect the actual on-sale date of the new Cherokee, which is set to hit showrooms in September.
"Over the last couple of weeks during final quality and durability testing, we have discovered the opportunity to further improve powertrain calibration," Chrysler told Automotive News. This marks the second notable delay in the Cherokee's short life, after production was delayed for roughly a month earlier this summer.
Still, we'd rather Chrysler make sure the Cherokee is ready for primetime before flying media in from around the country. It shows a willingness to get things right the first time, rather than offering media drives and then tweaking the car after the fact.