US environmental regulators have approved the sale of 2017 diesel models of the Jeep Cherokee SUV and light-duty Ram 1500 pickup, auto giant Fiat Chrysler said Friday.
The move allows the company to begin selling diesel versions of the popular vehicles that US officials had refused to allow on the road over concerns about the emissions technology.
The announcement follows a lawsuit brought in May by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which accused the company of configuring models in earlier years to evade emissions testing, which Fiat Chrysler denied.
The Italian-controlled FCA said Friday the go-ahead to sell the new diesel models was the result of months of talks with the EPA and California’s Air Resources Board.
The updates for the 2017 diesel models will require only software calibrations and no changes to hardware, FCA said in a statement.
German automaker Volkswagen continues to be rocked by controversy after admitting in 2015 that it outfitted 11 million cars worldwide with devices to hide harmful emissions from pollution testing.
The EPA’s accusations against Fiat Chrysler concerned the 2014 to 2016 model years and the company said it hoped to apply the software fix used on the 2017 models to those earlier model years.
“We are anxious to build on this progress to make appropriate updates to the emissions control software in our earlier model year vehicles,” Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said in the statement.
The company does not break down its sales by engine type but sales of Ram pickups rose five percent year-on-year in June, with just over 43,000 sold, according to a company spokesman.
While the Jeep brand has struggled recently, sales of the Jeep Cherokee rose 21 percent year-over-year last month, the best performance since 2005.
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