Stellantis, GM pay $363 million in U.S. fuel economy penalties

WASHINGTON — Stellantis and General Motors paid a total of $363 million in civil penalties for failing to meet U.S. fuel economy requirements for prior model years, documents seen on Friday by Reuters show.

The record-setting penalties include $235.5 million for Stellantis for the 2018 and 2019 model years and $128.2 million for GM covering 2016 and 2017, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which administers the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program.

Stellantis — which also owns Fiat, Peugeot and other marques — said the penalty "reflects past performance recorded before the formation of Stellantis, and is not indicative of the company’s direction."

Stellantis previously paid a total of $156.6 million in penalties for the 2016 and 2017 model years.

GM said Friday as "we work towards the goal of a zero-emissions future, we may use a combination of credits from prior model years, expected credits from future model years, credits obtained from other manufacturers, and payment of civil penalties to comply with increasingly stringent CAFE regulations."

GM, which sells Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles in the U.S., had not previously paid a fine in the 40-year history of the CAFE program. It had initially planned to use credits to meet its compliance shortfall but opted to pay penalties, NHTSA said.

The GM and Stellantis penalties were paid between December and May, according to the records. This is the first time in three years the agency has collected fuel economy penalties.