[Courtesy of Volkswagen.com]
German car maker Volkswagen and its rigging scandal still a controversy, South Korean government confirmed some of Volkswagen‘s cars sold in Korea are also rigged to manipulate emission levels, Thursday.
The models with defeat devices found were Volkswagen Tiguan Euro5 models equipped with an EA189 engine, the Ministry of Environment announced. The ministry could not confirm whether Golf Euro 5 models and Euro6 models have the defeat devices rigged so far.
Models of Volkswagen cars tested by the Ministry of Environment were Jetta, Beetle, Audi A3 which are Euro 6 models and Tiguan, which is a Euro 5 model. Both of Golf Euro 5 and 6 models were also tested.
Volkswagen is going through turmoil worldwide after being indicted by U.S. government for tinkering with emissions and was ordered to make recalls on diesel cars which are manufactured after 2008.
The defeat device was rigged to fool tests on emission. It automatically turns on whenever the car’s system thinks that it’s under the testing situation. The car assumed its situation by detecting wheel movement and other status of the car.
When under testing situation the device controls the car’s exhaust recirculation system to fake the emission level. When turned off, the system gave out excessive emissions granting the car with more power.
According to the Ministry, it had halted all sales of the cars which did not meet the requirements on Monday and Volkswagen in Korea was indicted to fines. Also, recall orders were made to 125,000 Volkswagen cars which were already sold.
아주경제 박세진 기자 = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
