Nissan Sues South Korea Over Emissions-Cheating Accusations
June 27 2016 - 12:00AM
Dow Jones News
SEOUL—Nissan Motor Co.'s South Korean unit has filed a lawsuit
over the Korean's government's claims that the Japanese auto maker
rigged emissions tests on its Qashqai diesel sport-utility
vehicles.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Environment fined Nissan 340
million won ($290,122) for using so-called defeat devices in
hundreds of the SUVs imported and sold in the country. It ordered
the recall of more than 800 Qashqai vehicles sold in Korea and
asked prosecutors to indict the head of Nissan's Korean operations,
Takehiko Kikuchi, for violating the country's emissions law.
"There's no change in our position that we have not and do not
employ illegal defeat or cheat devices in any of the cars that we
make," said a Nissan Korea spokeswoman.
Nissan Korea said Monday it has filed the suit with the Seoul
Administrative Court to dispute and nullify the accusations by the
ministry. Although Nissan is suing the ministry, it has paid the
fine in full, the spokeswoman said on Monday.
A ministry official in charge of the matter said the ministry
has taken appropriate action and that Nissan has agreed that the
Qashqai models sold in the country have technical issues that need
to be addressed.
South Korea has investigated the emissions systems of 20 models
made and sold by local and foreign car makers since Volkswagen AG's
emissions-cheating scandal emerged last year. During their inquiry,
investigators found that the defeat device used in the Qashqai was
set to switch off its exhaust-reduction system automatically under
regular driving temperatures, according to the ministry.
It said the system switches off when the engine's intake
temperature reaches 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit),
much lower than the 50 degrees Celsius for other models probed by
South Korea.
Nissan has argued that the setting is designed to prevent the
engine from overheating.
The Qashqai SUVs probed by the Korean regulator were produced at
Nissan's Sunderland plant in the U.K. using diesel engines supplied
by Renault SA, a Nissan partner.
South Korea's investigations came as Nissan said that it would
spend more than $2 billion to acquire a 34% stake in Mitsubishi
Motors Corp., which admitted to falsifying fuel-economy data for 20
models sold in Japan. Two of the models were manufactured by
Mitsubishi and sold under Nissan's brand name.
Write to In-Soo Nam at In-Soo.Nam@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 26, 2016 23:45 ET (03:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.