“R.itemList.length” “- this.config.text.ariaShown
“This.config.text.ariaFermé”
FRANCFORT / MILAN (Reuters) – The offices of Fiat Chrysler (FCA) and CNH Industrial were raided on Wednesday in Germany, Italy and Switzerland from an investigation initiated by German prosecutors investigating emissions fraud.
Engines used through Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Jeep cars, as well as CNH Industrial’s Iveco trucks, have been found to involve potentially illegal engine control software to mask the highest levels of pollutants, Frankfurt prosecutors said.
The Frankfurt prosecutor stopped before naming Alfa Romeo and Fiat’s parent company, Fiat Chrysler, because under German law, only individuals, not companies, can be prosecuted.
The investigation reaches nine other people applying for an “international car manufacturer” and seeks to identify its role in installing cars equipped with potentially polluting software on public roads, the prosecutor’s workplace said.
An FCA spokesman said several of the group’s offices in Europe had been visited through investigators as part of a request for legal assistance in Germany, adding that it was cooperating fully with the authorities.
In a similar statement sent by email, CNH Industrial demonstrated that several of its offices in Europe had been visited by investigators following a request from the German magistrates and that it was cooperating fully with the authorities.
FCA and CNH Industrial are controlled through Exor, the corporate holding company of the Italian family Agnelli.
Potentially illegal software detected on 1.3 and 1.6-liter Multijet Multijet engines used in Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Fiat engines, as well as advertising diesel engines used in Iveco and Fiat advertising vehicles, prosecutors said.
Although those cars passed the pollutant tests in a lab, the cars used software to largely disable filtering of exhaust emissions while driving on the road, they added.
The research, which is coordinated through European justice firm EUROJUST, focuses on nine other people living in Italy and its activities between 2014 and 2019, they said.
(Reporting through Edward Taylor and Joern Poltz in Germany and Giulio Piovaccari in Italy; Edited through Maria Sheahan, Mark Potter and David Goodman)