Last year Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) reinforced the conformity test for fuel efficiency of cars, and accordingly some imported cars put some new models into the Korean market with lower fuel economy. Importers perked up their efforts by changing engines and even certification method, but some doubts have been being raised on the manipulation of the fuel economy downward.

AutoDaily’s recent survey revealed that three importers’ fuel efficiency was lowered down in spite of introduction of light weight, new type engines, etc. for the improvement of fuel economy. In particular, Audi-VW and BMW Korea are of the two.

Actually Audi-VW last year released new Jetta, except for 1.6 diesel model. The exception was not clearly explained in spite of new year model launching that added fuel efficient cars. A person at VW explained that “Import of the 1.6 diesel will be suspended, while 2.0 models replacing it in the future.” There was no clear explanation on the suspension of fuel efficient 1.6 model that boasted a high fuel efficiency of 19.1km/l.

The concurrent VW Jetta 2.0 TDI premium model also showed worse fuel economy. VW reduced the weight with light material and adding some parts like ISG of stop-go system, but the fuel economy was lowered down to 15.5km/l.

In fact, Audi and VW are sharing engines, transmissions, and also platforms, and so are of the same figures for the European fuel economy, but the figures in Korea differs depending on the period of car model introduction. The 2014 models usually show lower fuel efficiency. For example, VW Golf 1.6 with the EU’s fuel economy of 25.6km/l in equivalence with Audi A3 1.6 was registered in Korea to be 18.9km/l and 15.8km/l, respectively. Compared with VW Golf that was introduced in June 2013, the Audi A3 that launched in May 2014 deteriorated 11% in fuel efficiency. The same happening is for VW Golf with 2.0 engine and Audi A3. The 2014 year models have lower efficiency.

BMW improved fuel economy in Europe by equipping new engines, but the same models introduced in Korea have been rather worsened. The BMW’s new 520d debuted last October in Korea was improved in Europe around 10% to 24.4km/l from 22.2km/l, but in Korea it deteriorated some 4.7% to 16.1km/l from 16.9km/l. The same occurrence replicated for the 4WD model, 520d xDrive. Manager of BMW Korea, Yong-Seok Lee explained that “There are no specific reasons for the deterioration because certification for fuel efficiency has been performed on the same procedure, falling in the 1st grade category, and so no special meaning is put on the happening.”

However, as MLIT is strengthening the conformity investigation on the fuel efficiency, importers seem to be registering more roomy figures. There is of the opinion that even if technological improvement will bring about better fuel economy, the degeneration will eventually deceit consumers who own older models.

An anonymous said that “With Korea-EU FTA implemented, the official fuel efficiency of imported cars was accepted by the Korean government with submission of relevant test documents only, but the strengthened conformity regulations made them to revise the figures down with introduction of new models.

The Korea-EU FTA has an agreement for mutual recognition of certification, and so a party’s test results on the fuel economy are accepted as they are to the other party.

In the meantime, Audi, VW, Chrysler, and BMW who were fined 3 to 4 million won due to exaggeration of fuel economy at last year’s conformity tests performed by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The due date is the end of January, and any dissent may be filed within 60 days of the order. Deupty General Manager Jae-Yong Go at VW Korea said that “We received the notice of the penalty a few days before, and there will be some discussions with Head Office for coordination of its stance and payment timing,” and “Any decision is not made yet, and still under discussion internally,” said Deputy General Manager Dong-Ryul Han at Audi Korea.