First Recall Plan
The Ministry of Environment of South Korea announced on October 6 that Audi Volkswagen Korea submitted recall documents on the previous day with regard to the Tiguan. At present, a total of 126,000 Audi and Volkswagen vehicles divided into 15 models are involved in the companies’ emissions scandal and the Tiguan accounts for approximately one-fifth of them.
The documents submitted by Audi Volkswagen Korea state that the software in the vehicle is operated in two modes under various vehicle driving conditions such as coolant temperature. A recall plan for software and parts replacement is included in the documents, too.
After the submission of the documents, the ministry began to check the appropriateness of the recall plan, which is likely to take five to six weeks. Its purpose is to check how the exhaust emissions and fuel efficiency will change after the recall by using a chassis dynamometer and a portable emission measurement system. Accordingly, the recall is to be initiated in mid-November or later. The ministry is also planning to tell the company to replace the vehicles in a case where the recall is insufficient to result in the elimination of the defective parts in question. This order can be issued when the amount of exhaust emissions and fuel efficiency show a difference of 5% or more before and after the recall. Still, the ministry is going to give a second chance even in that case.
“A total of 280,000 or so imported cars were sold in South Korea last year and no less than one-fourth of them were Volkswagen vehicles, worth 2.9 trillion won in total,” the ministry explained, adding, “With the figures that large, the company is unlikely to be lax in the recall or replacement if it is to continue to do business in South Korea and we, on our part, have plan B just in case.”
According to the ministry, the 126,000 Audi and Volkswagen vehicles are estimated to emit 737 to 1,742 tons of extra nitrogen oxide assuming that they remain in operation without recall and the social costs required to deal with this are estimated at 33.9 billion won to 80.1 billion won a year.