FCA may be banned from selling cars in Germany after the automaker declined to meet with the country's Transport Ministry to answer questions about the reported discovery of emission cheat software in a diesel Fiat. The software shuts off emissions control devices 22 minutes after activation, with emissions tests running for just 20 minutes. Germany's transport minister, Alexander Dobrindt, asked FCA reps to attend a government committee hearing about the matter but the company failed to appear.

In retaliation Germany is now threatening to halt FCA group sales in Germany, which would affect the Fiat, Jeep and Chrysler brands. In response the company issued a short statement: "We believe all our vehicles respect EU emissions standards and we believe Italian regulators are the competent authority to evaluate this." EU law says that FCA needs to homologate its vehicles to Italian standards because that's where its area operations are based. Still, this explanation is likely to piss off the Germans, especially since Volkswagen gave the country's auto industry a massive black eye over the exact same issue. If FCA decides to drag this out the company could suffer financially.

Fiat was the 13th best-selling brand in Germany in the first quarter of 2016 with 16,041 cars moved. Jeep came in 27th with 3,042 cars sold. The automaker is currently riding a surging sales wave in Germany, with a year-over-year increase of 19.4%. If FCA all of a sudden couldn't sell its cars in the country, well that nice and fat number might drastically shrink in size. Of course we expect the Italian-Americans to play ball (somewhat) and for the Germans to not take such a hard line. Also, isn't it a bit ironic that FCA could get banned from Germany for cheating emissions tests Volkswagen can pull off one of the greatest cons the industry has ever seen and still do brisk business? Just sayin'...