Truck owners charge Ford with cheating on emissions tests

Photo: Bull-Doser

Ford Motor Company is being sued by truck owners who allege that the company installed software in more than 500,000 F-250 and F-350 Super Duty trucks between 2011 and 2017 to cheat federal emissions tests and allow twice the legal limit of diesel waste into the air.

“Assuming these allegations can be proven, this is a deliberate attempt by Ford to evade the law and boost profits while deceiving its customers and polluting our communities,” said Madeline Page, campaign coordinator for Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group.

Page said it appears Ford is pursuing every avenue available, from Congress and the White House to perhaps even emissions cheating software, to avoid producing cleaner and more efficient vehicles.

“The lawsuit suggests that at the same time Ford’s executive was posing for photos in the Rose Garden to celebrate clean car standards with President Barack Obama in 2011, the company was simultaneously installing technology that would allow its trucks to evade federal emissions requirements,” she said.

Page said Ford Chairman Bill Ford likes to profess his environmentalist credentials, but if these allegations prove true, his company’s evasion is particularly callous and unacceptable.

“Ford Motor Company tries very hard to pitch the public on its community-centered ethos,” she said. “But it is apparent Ford is focused instead on profits.”

Earlier this week, Public Citizen and Greenpeace attempted to present Ford with the 2018 Hypocrisy Award at the Consumer Electronics Show in Nevada.

“This is the latest in a long line of decisions that put their company’s profits over the public’s welfare,” Page said. “We will hold Ford accountable.