Fiat Chrysler CEO Scolded Aide for Early Denial on Emissions

CEO Marchionne lambasted spokesman after 2015 statement
Email excerpts revealed in lawsuit filed in federal court

Sergio Marchionne
Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg

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By Ryan Beene, Tommaso Ebhardt, and Margaret Cronin Fisk

May 14, 2018 at 10:06 PM UTC

Updated on

May 15, 2018 at 8:28 AM UTC

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The chief executive of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV admonished a company spokesman in 2015 for saying the company didn’t rig its vehicles with illegal software to pass emissions tests, according to documents filed in a related lawsuit.

An excerpt of the 2015 email from CEO Sergio Marchionne to Fiat Chrysler’s then-head of U.S. communications, Gualberto Ranieri, was revealed in federal court in Manhattan on Monday. The spokesman had issued a statement days after Volkswagen AG admitted to cheating on emissions tests that Fiat Chrysler did not use so-called defeat devices.