Hundreds of thousands of Ford Super Duty pickups pollute at up to 50 times higher than federal emissions standards, a new class-action lawsuit alleges.
Hagens Berman, the same Seattle law firm that filed claims against Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, and Fiat Chrysler for rigging diesel emissions tests, is putting the spotlight on Ford. It claims that 2011?2017 F-250 and F-350 pickups with the 6.7-liter Power Stroke V-8 were equipped with the same Bosch “defeat device” used by VW and other automakers. The lawsuit is seeking up to $4.2 billion, according to managing partner Steve Berman, for damages affecting more than 500,000 vehicles.
In its filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Hagens Berman offered no direct proof that Ford colluded with Bosch on a defeat device, which the U.S. Department of Justice proved took place between VW and Bosch. In fact, the law firm tacitly admits that the Ford pickups pass the federal emissions-testing protocol, known as Federal Test Procedure 75 or FTP-75. But Hagens Berman alleges, referencing its own research conducted on the road with portable emissions-measuring devices, that Ford routinely tuned the engines to exceed emissions at the “extreme.” It claims that Ford allows the engine to produce excess nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions once the engine is running at 70 percent of its available power and that a Super Duty towing the maximum 24,000-pound capacity would exp...