Earlier this month, the Ministry of Environment banned the sales and revoked the certifications of 80 vehicle models of the carmaker. The ministry also slapped the German automaker with fines of 17.8 billion won (US$16 million). (image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Korea Bizwire) – State prosecutors said Tuesday the managing director of Volkswagen Korea will be summoned later this week to be questioned over allegations the German automaker fabricated emissions results here.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said it will summon Volkswagen Korea Managing Director Thomas Kuehl on Thursday to gain reference over allegations the carmaker illegally changed parts of the Golf 1.4 TSI to obtain approval from the local government between 2014 and 2015.
Kuehl has been in charge of the imports and sales of Volkswagen vehicles in South Korea since 2013.
Last week, prosecutors summoned Johannes Thammer, the chief of Audi Volkswagen Korea, to grill him over the allegations.
Thammer, who has been the German carmaker’s local unit chief since December 2012, is known to have been denying the charges.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Environment banned the sales and revoked the certifications of 80 vehicle models of the carmaker. The ministry also slapped the German automaker with fines of 17.8 billion won (US$16 million).
The number of vehicles subject to the administrative measure is 83,000, which have been sold here between 2009 and July this year.
The total number of Audi and Volkswagen vehicles, whose certifications have been canceled so far, is 209,000, some 68 percent of more than 300,000 cars that the automaker has sold here from 2007 onward.
(Yonhap)
