The partial United States government shutdown has progressed for 25 days, leaving some workers without pay, National Parks untended, and Fiat Chrysler in a bind waiting for Environmental Protection Agency approval the EPA cannot currently give.
The heavy-duty Ram 3500 pickup is currently in the process of emissions certification before it can go on sale, Bloomberg reported from the North American International Auto Show Jan. 14. The standard EPA stamp of approval will certify that the new models comply with federal emissions restrictions. In particular, the work needs to go through the Office of Transportation and Air Quality, which is closed during the shutdown.
“I am concerned, very concerned, because if it continues, it will have an impact on the launch,” Manley said at the event. “The earlier that it can be resolved, clearly the better, and obviously I’m not the only person saying that.”
Manley was confident at the show that the truck segment will continue to perform well after ranking second best in sales in the fourth quarter. Fiat Chrysler is also seeing strong performance in its Jeep and Ram brands; Jeep sales rose 17 percent to a record best.
Fiat Chrysler was fined $305 million in January in a settlement with the Justice Department and EPA for programming diesel engines to display incorrect pollution data during emissions tests on Jeep SUVs and Ram pickup trucks made between 2014 and 2016. The EPA certification for the Ram 3500 is unrelated to the settlement.