South Korea bans sales of ten Nissan, BMW, and Porsche models

After the U.S., it’s arguable that South Korea has become one of the strictest enforcers on the VW Group; and it continues as they have banned the sale of some Nissan, BMW and Porsche (a part of the VW Group) models.

The ban has come as a result of several automakers reportedly fabricating certification documents to make them ‘road worthy’, which has come out off the back of the ongoing VW emissions scandal.

In August, the South Korean Government announced it would ban all ten models after they conducted an investigation which revealed several other automakers, besides VW, had allegedly falsified documents on emissions and noise-level tests.

Models that were centre to the probe included the Infiniti Q50 sedan and Qashqai sport-utility vehicles from Nissan, BMW’s X5M SUV, and Porsche’s Macan S Diesel, Cayman SE Hybrid & Turbo, 918 Spyder, Cayman GTS, 911 GT3 and Panamera SE Hybrid vehicles.

All above models have now been banned.

Penalties

The automakers’ local subsidiaries have already been fined a combined total of 7.17 billion Won (£4.8 million) for the 4,523 vehicles already sold in South Korea.

Both Nissan and BMW spokespersons said that they’d try to achieve genuine certification for the affected models again, but there has yet to be a response from Porsche Korea.

November 2016 warning

In November, South Korea already planned to ban the sales of some Nissan, BMW and Porsche models.

The Government has undertaken investigations since August into more than twelve foreign automakers. The environment ministry decided to widen its investigation after banning the sale of almost all VW vehicles in Korea. It was a strategy deployed by Korea to see if any other automakers in the industry were capable of the same or similar cheating actions of VW.

The ministry director, Hong Dong-gon, released a warning back in November, giving the companies until mid-December to clarify their positions. After that, the Government planned to revoke all certifications, ban sales of their cars and refer cases to prosecutors for further investigations.

Just after the statement was released at a news conference, company officials at Nissan and Porsche said that they had found “errors” in their certification documents and proceeded to voluntarily suspend sales of affected vehicles. There are some who suspect the companies knew of this “error” and thought it would be prudent to voluntarily suspend all sales off the back of the VW crisis.

Strong penalties imposed by South Korea

VW has a relatively small market in South Korea, but it doesn’t stop them from imposing heavy penalties in relation to VW’s alleged cheating and deceit.

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog has fined the automaker a record 37.3 billion Won (£25 million) for false advertising on vehicle emissions. They also charged a senior executive – the first country to charge a VW Executive in relation to the scandal – for submitting false emissions data.

South Korea has pursued VW aggressively. The Ministry of Environment revoked certification of 80 VW models in Korea, including luxury brands like Audi and Bentley. This covered 83,000 cars, sold and unsold, which took effect from 2 August 2016.

Seriousness of fabricating documents

Falsifying documents is serious – not only does it deceive vehicle owners, but can allow automakers to cheat emissions testing. The seriousness of doing so is highlighted by Mr Dong-gon, who said: “obtaining certification with fake documents is a serious crime. We’ll deal with it sternly”.

The U.K. should take a leaf out of South Korea’s book by making sure that they’re doing all they can to prevent their customers and dealers from harm caused by the cheating manufacturers.