Certification Manipulation
According to industry sources, the Ministry of Environment of South Korea is planning to take administrative measures against BMW Korea, Nissan Korea and Porsche Korea next week for certification document manipulation.
The ministry looked into the certification documents of 15 importers on November 29 and detected such manipulation in 10 models of the three companies. After the detection in seven models, Porsche Korea voluntarily reported to the prosecution and gave up on hearing procedure. BMW Korea and Nissan Korea held their hearings on December 14 and 21, respectively.
Porsche Korea tampered with exhaust gas test results regarding the three models including the Macan S Diesel. When it comes to the other four such as the Cayman GTS, the company conducted the same tests at an unauthorized organization and pretended as if the tests had been carried out at an authorized organization. The ministry explained that this is in violation of the Clean Air Conservation Act.
The administrative measures to be taken against the company include the cancellation of certification, a ban on sale and penalties that total 2.86 billion won, which is equivalent to slightly less than half of its net profit for last year.
Nissan Korea submitted test results regarding the Infiniti Q50 Diesel and the Qashqai based on the on-board diagnostics of Mercedes Benz and Renault and admitted the fact during its hearing while claiming that the behavior caused no problem in terms of the performance of the vehicles. The ministry refuted by saying that this was a case similar to that of Volkswagen Korea. BMW Korea, in the meantime, is likely to be given a light penalty for slight violation