South Korea's Environment Ministry slapped Mercedes Benz, Porsche and Nissan with heavy fines on Wednesday, accusing the automakers of manipulating emissions data, media reported
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th May, 2020) South Korea's Environment Ministry slapped Mercedes Benz, Porsche and Nissan with heavy fines on Wednesday, accusing the automakers of manipulating emissions data, media reported.
According to the Yonhap state news agency, Mercedes Benz will be asked to pay 77.6 billion won ($63 million), Porsche 900 million won and Nissan one billion won for running software in cars that the ministry believes skews emissions tracking.
According to the agency, the ministry found issues with over 37,000 cars sold by Mercedes Benz, and some 2,000 Nissan and 934 Porsche cars sold between 2012 and 2018.
The software was not approved by the ministry and is believed to relay reduced numbers of nitrogen oxide exhaust, which is a toxic fine dust air pollutant.
The ministry believes that Mercedes Benz's emissions data was reduced by as much as 13 times, according to the agency.
"We plan to review and strictly manage illegal emission submissions to reduce fine dust from diesel cars," a statement from the ministry reads, as quoted by Yonhap.
Mercedes Benz said it will appeal the fine, claiming that its cars conformed to the Euro 6 emissions guidelines.
