Hyundai and Kia in the sights: “Dieselgate”: Delphi investigated in Bascharage

Published29 June 2022, 11:55

BASCHARAGE – The equipment manufacturer’s premises were raided on Wednesday as part of an investigation into Hyundai and its subsidiary Kia suspected of having sold “210,000 vehicles” whose diesel engine was presumed to be rigged.

AFP

Searches targeting the Korean car group Hyundai and the American equipment supplier BorgWarner took place on Tuesday in Germany and Luxembourg, as part of an investigation into the sale of diesel vehicles with allegedly rigged engines, the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.

“Nearly 140 investigators (…) carried out searches in eight places in Germany and Luxembourg”, according to a press release from the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office. The “Kia and Hyundai brands” – belonging to the Korean group Hyundai Motor Group – and “the automotive supplier BorgWarner” are targeted, he added. It is moreover in Bascharage, at Delphi, a subsidiary of BorgWarner, that the searches in Luxembourg were carried out.

Editpress

Kia and Hyundai are accused of having “sold more than 210,000 diesel vehicles until 2020 with unauthorized devices”, making it possible to artificially reduce CO2 emissions from engines, according to the prosecution. The software allowing the manipulation would come in particular from the equipment manufacturer Delphi, which today belongs to the American group BorgWarner, subcontractor of the two companies.

The two manufacturers and the equipment supplier are prosecuted for “suspicion of fraud and air pollution, and complicity in these crimes”.

“Dieselgate”

The searches were “coordinated by Eurojust”, the European judicial cooperation platform, said the prosecution. During these operations, “communication data, software and planning documents were seized”, according to a press release from Eurojust.

This is the first time that the manufacturer Hyundai has been targeted by justice in the context of the scandal of the rigged engines “dieselgate”. This scandal erupted in 2015 when Volkswagen admitted, following accusations from the American environmental agency, to have rigged 11 million of its diesel vehicles using software.

Several manufacturers and equipment manufacturers have since been in the crosshairs of justice beyond the borders of Germany, where the first trials once morest former Volkswagen group officials are underway. Recently, searches also targeted the Japanese Suzuki, the French Stellantis and the Italian Marelli, in Germany, Italy and Hungary.

(AFP)