Posted 12/26/2018 12: 13: 56CET
SEOUL, Dec. 26 (REUTERS / EP) –
The South Korean Ministry of Transport announced on Monday December 24 that it will file a lawsuit against the German manufacturer of luxury vehicles BMW for an alleged “delay” in calls for review and hide “defects” that led to several fires in engines in the Asian country this year.
The Ministry also fined BMW with 11.2 billion won (€ 8.73 million) for “delayed recall calls”.
A defective exhaust gas treatment system in vehicles of the German firm with diesel engines caused 52 fires in South Korea until the end of November, which prompted the company to call 172,080 models to review and issue an apology.
The government said an investigation showed that a defective design in the BMW Exhaust Gas Recirculation unit had caused the fires and added that it would consider issuing more calls for review.
The company denied that there were any design flaws and said it called for a revision of the models in a “timely” manner. “We made calls for review without hesitation at the time the cause of the fires was confirmed,” the Korean unit of BMW said in a statement issued Monday.
The car company admitted for the first time in July this year that what caused the fires was the “defective” system of exhaust gas recirculation, but the Government maintained that the company knew of the problem since 2015, when it created a team to tackle the case.
According to the Government, BMW announced the so-called revision of 106,317 vehicles in July, but it was not until October when it called 65,763 additional vehicles that also use the same engines.
Sales of the German firm in South Korea fell almost 10% year-on-year, to 47,569 units, between January and November and the company’s vehicles are the second most imported in South Korea after those of Mercedes Benz.