South Korea has submitted a complaint against Nissan Motor‘s South Korean unit declaring that the Japanese automaker manipulated the fuel economy test results of its Infiniti Q50 sedan, a government official stated on Tuesday.
The transport ministry is also examining BMW and Porsche on a comparable matter, the official, Koh Sung-woo, informed Reuters.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has started an investigation into Nissan after a criminal compliant was submitted by the ministry, a spokesman at the office stated.
Makers of imported vehicles, which have risen since the last few years in South Korea, have been dealing with growing analysis in the nation following Volkswagen emissions scandal.
The recent federal government action follows an announcement by South Korea’s environment ministry last month that the sale of 10 models of Nissan, BMW and Porsche had been banned after the automobile makers were discovered to have fabricated files on emissions and noise-level tests. The models banned consist of BMW’s X5M and Porsche’s Cayenne and Macan models.
The probe was then broadened to whether the 3 automakers have falsified files on fuel economy tests of the 10 models too, Koh stated.
Koh informed Nissan overstated the fuel economy of the Q50 so that it is 3.4 percent higher than the actual test outcome.
“They manipulated the test results of the car to make the fuel economy look better,” he stated.
Nissan Korea stated it reported “some unsuitable issues” in certification files to authorities in 2016, stating the errors were brought on by the misbehavior of a manager of the company.
“We express genuine regret over those issues,” a spokeswoman stated.
