The U.S. Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into Ford Motor Co.’s emissions certification process, the automaker disclosed two months after fessing up to an issue with its testing.
Ford is fully cooperating with all government agencies, the automaker said Friday in a regulatory filing. The company said that because the matter is still at a preliminary stage, it can’t predict the outcome or assure investors it won’t have a material impact on the company.
Ford revealed in February that it had been taking a flawed approach to using road-load specifications to simulate how aerodynamic drag and tire friction can affect fuel economy outside testing labs. It hired an outside firm earlier this year to help conduct an investigation that could stretch into the summer.
The Justice Department notified the company of its investigation earlier this month, Kim Pittel, group vice president of sustainability, environment and safety engineering, said in a statement.
Ford shares rose 9 percent to $10.23 in early trading Friday following a first-quarter report on Thursday that beat Wall Street forecasts.
The automaker since last fall has been investigating concerns raised by employees that incorrect calculations were used to translate test results into the mileage and emissions data submitted to regulators.
Ford said in February it was evaluating changes to the process it uses to develop fuel economy and emissions figures, “including engineering, technical and governance components.”
The probe makes Ford at least the third major automaker to fall under U.S. federal investigation over emissions in the span of a few years. Volkswagen Group paid a $4.3 billion penalty in 2017 for misleading regulators and customers about its diesel engines’ emissions.
In January, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles agreed to an $800 million civil settlement to resolve claims by the U.S. Justice Department and the state of California that it used illegal software to produce false results on diesel-emissions tests. A Justice Department criminal investigation is pending.
U.S. regulators are also investigating Daimler AG for alleged excess emissions in Mercedes-Benz diesel vehicles, but the Justice Department and EPA have declined to comment on the status of the probe. Daimler also has declined to comment, but has previously acknowledged it faces investigations in Germany and the United States.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
Bloomberg and Reuters contributed to this report.
