Indiana-based engine manufacturer Cummins will recall 630,000 Ram 2500 and 3500 heavy-duty pickup trucks fitted with its diesel engines to remedy a software function that limits nitrogen oxide pollutants during emissions testings but allows excess emissions during normal operation, thwarting efforts to reduce automobile pollution, the Associated Press reports.
The recall will cover vehicles built from 2013 to 2019 equipped with a “defeat device” designed to circumvent emissions testing, allowing hundreds of thousands of vehicles to spew tons of carcinogenic pollutants into the air. Cummins will pay $1.675 billion in civil fines and penalties, plus another $325 million for environmental remedies, in the largest settlement under the 1963 Clean Air Act.