According to the article, this penalty is more than half their annual profits last year.<p>From the press statement[1]:<p>> ... $1.675 billion, the largest civil penalty we have ever secured under the Clean Air Act, and the second largest environmental penalty ever secured.<p>I was confused by this, since Volkswagen has paid over $20b over several years because of their Clean Air Act violations from 2015, but it's not clear to me how much was paid to the government and how much were costs incurred from recalls, customer lawsuits, legal fees, etc.<p>1: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/statement-attorney-general-merrick-garland-agreement-principle-cummins-settle-alleged" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/statement-attorney-general-me...</a>
It will be interesting to learn what, specifically, Cummins is alleged to have done. As of now, there seem to be no details about what the defeat devices are and how they are supposed to work.