[Courtesy of Volkswagen]
South Korea took harsh administrative actions Tuesday against German auto giant Volkswagen for faking emissions tests, cancelling the registration of tens of thousands of cars.
The Environment Ministry said an official notification of its administrative actions has been sent to the South Korean branch of Audi Volkswagen, cancelling the registration of 79 variants of its 32 car types sold in South Korean since 2007.
After a hearing on July 22, the order will be finalized. Additional steps could be taken later, including fines, an order to recall, and suspended sales.
The ministry's move followed an official request from prosecutors to slap administrative penalties against Volkswagen for cheating on noise and gas emissions tests.
Volkswagen vehicles mentioned by prosecutors include Golf, Scirocco, Jetta, Passat, Tiguan as well as A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, A8, Q3, Q5, TT Roadster, TT Coupe, and Bentley’s Continental GTC.
Over the last 10 years, the German company has sold 250,000 cars in South Korea, but it's not known how many cars would be affected by the ministry's move.
Volkswagen has been punished with a flurry of legal actions in South Korea and other countries after it admitted in September last year to falsifying US emissions tests on some of its diesel cars.
In November last year, South Korea ordered Volkswagen to recall more than 125,000 diesel-powered cars and fined it 14.1 billion won (11 million US dollars).
Last month a Volkswagen executive was arrested on charges including forging reports on emissions results, noise levels and fuel efficiency. He was also accused of importing cars without getting proper certification.
The Volkswagen case triggered an intensive safety check into imported cars, leading to a fall in the number of all foreign cars sold in South Korea. Volkswagen saw a 33 percent drop in first-half sales.
Aju New Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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