SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean environmental officials accused the Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor on Monday of cheating on auto emissions tests, and authorities called for one of the company’s executives to face criminal charges.
The case reflects the increasing pressure on global automakers, as the crisis that has engulfed Volkswagen reverberates across the industry.
Volkswagen last year admitted to installing a so-called defeat device on 11 million vehicles worldwide, software that effectively lowered emissions when the exhaust was being tested. The deception, which has cost the German company billions of dollars and prompted a management shake-up, has pushed global authorities to take a deeper look at emissions testing by car manufacturers.
The accusations against Nissan in South Korea mirror the emissions discrepancies that regulators in Europe have detected in a wide range of cars. While those discrepancies have not been considered illegal in Europe, regulators in South Korea say they violate local emissions standards, in the case of Nissan.
After Volkswagen’s deception emerged, South Korean officials started investigating the emissions systems of 20 diesel models in the country. As part of that effort, the Environment Ministry of South Korea said on Monday that it had discovered that Nissan had manipulated the emissions of its Qashqai diesel-power sport utility vehicle. The authorities said it had found problems with emissions levels in some other cars, but no cheating mechanisms like the one the Environment Ministry said it found in the Nissan model.
Nissan disputed the accusations, adding that the model in question had passed European pollution tests. The cars are made in Britain. “Nissan has not and does not employ illegal defeat or cheat devices in any of the cars that we make,” the automaker said in an email statement.
The potential hit to Nissan is more reputational than financial.
Officials ordered Nissan to recall 814 cars, the total sold in South Korea. The company was also ordered to pay a fine of 330 million won, or about $280,000, and to suspend sales of the Qashqai. The Environment Ministry also said it would ask prosecutors to indict the head of Nissan’s South Korean operations, Takehiko Kikuchi, on criminal charges of violating the country’s emissions law.
Carmakers have been under increasing scrutiny since Volkswagen’s deception emerged.
The United States Justice Department is investigating Daimler, the maker of Mercedes vehicles, over emissions testing. As part of an inquiry into potential emission anomalies, French authorities collected documents from the PSA Group, the parent of Peugeot and Citroën.
German regulators last month recalled 630,000 cars over emissions issues, a group that includes vehicles by General Motors’ Opel unit, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. The country’s officials are also looking into whether Opel and Fiat used manipulated software similar to the device found in Volkswagen vehicles. Opel officials are set to testify before an investigatory committee in Germany this week.
South Korean authorities have been particularly proactive in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal, as officials look to address the growing health concerns stemming from pollution.
Graphic: Explaining Volkswagen’s Emissions Scandal
Officials, who have raided the local offices of the German automaker, fined the company 14.1 billion won, or about $12 million, and ordered a recall of 125,000 vehicles. They have also asked prosecutors to indict two Volkswagen officials in South Korea on related charges. Prosecutors are still considering that request.
During the broader inquiry into diesel vehicles, investigators found that the defeat device used in the Nissan Qashqai was set to turn off its exhaust reduction system automatically under regular driving temperatures, the ministry’s statement said. It added that the system turned off when the engine’s intake temperature reached 35 degrees Celsius, or 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Other models turned off at higher temperatures.
A British government report, published in April, said that emissions of nitrogen oxides from tested vehicles, including two different Qashqai models, were “surprisingly different when tested on a test track or on-road under real driving conditions.” The report cited significant differences depending on whether the engines of tested vehicles were cold or had been warmed up. Volkswagen, however, used software specifically designed to thwart emissions tests.
“Our priority is to protect the interests of U.K. consumers,” the British Department for Transport said in a statement on Monday. “There is no evidence that Nissan has cheated emissions tests in the U.K., but we continue to monitor emissions investigations in other countries with interest.”
The German Transport Ministry said in a report in April that vehicles from more than a dozen manufacturers, including Nissan, had engines that were programmed to turn down emissions controls in cold weather. As part of its investigation, the ministry tested the Nissan Navara.
Officials ordered the recall of 630,000 cars. (The Navara was not part of that group.) The automakers will be required to improve the emissions performance of the vehicles.
The ministry said that only Volkswagen had illegal software designed to produce artificially low emissions under testing conditions. Scaling back the emissions controls, according to German authorities, is allowed under certain conditions to protect the motor from damage.
The vehicle at the center of the South Korean investigation, the Qashqai, was produced in Nissan’s British plant, using a Renault diesel engine, the ministry said. Nissan and Renault are partners with a common management structure; Carlos Ghosn is chairman and chief executive of the alliance.
Nissan said sales of the Qashqai, a compact crossover introduced in 2007 that resembles an S.U.V. and a hatchback, had reached one million vehicles by 2011. The Qashqai is sometimes marketed under the name Dualis.
While it is not sold in the United States and it is being phased out in Japan, the car has been especially important in Europe. The Qashqai is credited with helping raise Nissan’s market share in Europe, including Russia, to 4 percent last year, from 2.7 percent in 2009. That amounts to 715,000 units, out of Nissan’s roughly five million annual total.
Beyond the issues over emissions testing, automakers have admitted to other irregularities. Last month, in a separate scandal involving fuel efficiency, Mitsubishi Motors acknowledged using a testing method, banned in Japan, that tended to produce a more flattering assessment of fuel economy. But that method is approved in the United States.