[Courtesy of Nissan Korea]
Japan's Nissan Motor has been ordered to recall a compact diesel model of its vehicles sold in South Korea for manipulating emissions tests, South Korea's environment ministry said Tuesday.
The ministry banned sales of Nissan's Qashqai compact crossover and slapped a fine of 340 million won (292,010 US dollars) for using a defeat device to lie on emissions results. Nissan's local unit was ordered to recall 824 Qashqai cars sold in South Korea from November to last month.
The sales ban affects 1,060 Qashqai units brought into South Korea, the ministry said.
Qashqai, produced by an alliance of Nissan and France's Renault, is equipped with Renault's 1.6-liter engine.
In line with its earlier announcement, the ministry said it has asked state prosecutors to launch a criminal probe into Nissan Korea chief Takehiko Kikuchi, rejecting the company's allegations that it had never used a defeat device.
The Japanese company controls 2.46 percent of imported cars in South Korea. It has agreed to extend a $2.2 billion lifeline to its fellow Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi Motors battered by a scandal over falsified fuel-economy ratings. Nissan will become Mitsubishi's largest shareholder, buying a 34 percent stake.
The environment ministry's move followed a probe into 20 models of diesel cars that came after the environment ministry accused German carmaker Volkswagen of faking emissions results for some of its diesel models.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com