Audi Volkswagen and Porsche have been found to have illegally manipulated emissions by reducing the amount of adblue injection in eight diesel cars they sold in Korea.
The government will cancel emissions certification for eight types of vehicles, impose fines and file criminal charges. The amount of fines alone is expected to total 11.9 billion won. A total of 10,261 units were sold between May 2015 and January 2018.
According to an investigation by the Ministry of Environment, the two companies arbitrarily set up the injection quantity of the adblue that reduces Nitrogen Oxide (NOx), a pollutant of emissions, to be injected normally only during test runs.
In order to inject the adblue normally, the capacity of the adblue tank must be large, and then the fuel use will increase and fuel efficiency will get worse, so they seem to have been tricked, analysts said.
Last year, the Korean government also launched an investigation into all small diesel cars sold in Korea, which were certified on the Euro 6 basis, after the German automobile administration discovered them and ordered a recall.
The Ministry of Environment estimates that the fines for these vehicles will reach up to 7.9 billion won for Audi Volkswagen and 4 billion won for Porsche.
"We deeply sympathize with the public's concerns about the emission manipulation of diesel cars, which has been continuously taking place since 2015. As a result, we plan to deal with the illegal manipulation of automobile emissions in a more strict manner to reduce fine dust, which is a matter of public interest," said Geum Han-seung, an official at the ministry.