Reason for Sales Discontinuation
It has been found that Audi Korea stopped the sale of its vehicles such as A4, A6, A7, Q5 and TTS on March 1. This is the second discontinuation of sale in South Korea following that in August last year, which was due to allegations of certification document manipulation.
According to Audi Korea, the recent discontinuation of delivery is because of voluntary certification document review by Audi Volkswagen Korea co-managing director Marcus Hellmann, who was appointed last month. The Ministry of Environment of South Korea explained that it did not tell the company to review its certification documents or take similar measures with respect to the remaining vehicles not subject to the ban in August last year.
The new co-managing director was a member of the legal team in charge of the Volkswagen scandal at the headquarters. Some experts are pointing out in this regard that the automaker is trying to avoid any more possible problems in the South Korean market with regard to exhaust emissions.
According to the others, in the meantime, the discontinuation of delivery is because the documents are indeed problematic. “In the recent past, some other importers such as Porsche Korea were punished for document manipulation by the Ministry of Environment months after their discontinuation of delivery and Audi Korea’s current move can be because of the same reason,” one of them explained, adding, “At present, Audi Korea has no reason to stop its marketing with its sales volume dropped from 1,900 to 474 between January 2016 and January this year.”