South Korea investigaties more vehicles

The South Korean transport ministry has filed a complaint against Nissan Motor’s South Korean unit for allegedly manipulating the fuel economy test results of its Infiniti Q50 sedan. Transport ministry official Koh Sung-woo told Reuters that BMW and Porsche are also being investigated on similar chargers. A spokesman said the probe into Nissan was launched after the ministry filed a criminal complaint. This follows South Korea’s environment ministry’s announcement last month that 10 models of Nissan, BMW and Porsche had been banned after the car makers were found to have falsified documents on emissions tests. The ministry is now investigating whether Nissan, BMW and Porsche also fabricated fuel economy test documents. Koh said Nissan overstated the fuel economy of its Q50 so it was 3.4 per cent higher than independent test results. “They manipulated the test results of the car to make the fuel economy look better,” he said. Nissan Korea reported some “inappropriate problems” in certification documents to authorities in 2016 and said the errors were due to the misconduct of a manager at the company. “We express sincere regret over those issues,” a spokeswoman told Reuters. Representatives of BMW and Porsche in Seoul claimed the companies had not been notified of the probe.