10 automakers fined for selling cars with poor safety standards

SEOUL: The South Korean government said Wednesday it has fined 10 foreign and domestic automakers a total of 10.3 billion won ($7.6 million) for selling cars with inadequate safety standards. These include nine foreign companies, including Volkswagen Group Korea, Mercedes-Benz Korea, Ford Sales and Service Korea, Porsche Korea and BMW Korea. South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Company is also included in this. The government said the fine was based on glitches in the companies’ models from January to June last year, Yonhap news agency reported. Volkswagen Group Korea was hit with the largest fine of 3.5 billion won, followed by Mercedes-Benz Korea at 2.5 billion won. Ford Sales & Service Korea and Porsche Korea were each fined 1 billion won. The government said it separately fined five companies – Stellantis Korea, Mercedes-Benz Korea, Volkswagen Group Korea, Ford Korea and Kia – a total of 39 million won for selling cars with defective parts. Last week, Hyundai Motor and Kia recalled about 170,000 electric vehicles (EVs) to fix a software error in the charging system.