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By Park Jin-hai
Will Audi pay owners of its A3 3.0 TDI sedans for what the government claims was misleading information on their cars' mileage?
GM Korea made voluntary compensation to the tune of 32 billion won for about 80,000 Cruize subcompact vehicles, admitting that it inflated its mileage by 9 percent.
Now the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport says that Audi has overstated its A3 3.0 TDI's mileage by more than the permitted margin of error of 5 percent in previous tests carried out last year.
Sources say that the car had its mileage inflated by over 10 percent.
Audi previously stated that the vehicle's mileage was 13 kilometers per liter.
Audi said it correctly conducted a gas mileage test on the vehicles and never misled consumers.
"We never overstated the fuel efficiency of the A3 3.0 TDI sedan," an Audi Korea spokesman said. "We tested our vehicles under a European standard because we were told to do so early last year by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. We conducted the tests and then notified both the transport and the trade ministries in Korea of the results."
The spokesman claimed that the transport ministry tested the A3 3.0 TDI sedan using different standards and under different conditions.
The larger-than-permitted gap is attributed to the land ministry applying its own running resistance figure, not using data reported by the German carmaker.
Running resistance determines the fuel efficiency of a vehicle as it reflects the resistance from the road and the air when it drives. Fuel efficiency can be greatly affected by wind, road conditions and other environmental factors.
Last November, the land ministry, the trade ministry and the environment ministry announced a revised rule that will allow them to analyze the running resistance figure submitted by automakers. Under the new rule, which will take effect in November, the discrepancy in the resistance data shouldn't exceed 15 percent.
It was reported that the resistance data submitted by Audi had a discrepancy of more than 15 percent.
The land ministry admitted that it is hard to take issue with Audi's fuel efficiency under the current rules, because it is applying the rule retroactively. But it says the carmaker should voluntarily correct the error and compensate customers.
"Under the current rule, it is hard to take issue with Audi. Yet we have urged the carmaker to explain the gap," said Kim Yong-suk, land ministry official.
An industry insider cast doubt on the motivation for the ministry's move. "Like last year when the land ministry and trade ministry fought over who holds the power to test fuel efficiency, I cannot help wonder whether it is for the customers or its own vested interest. In a sense, it sounds like penalizing a Euro 5 standard car, which was given the green light under the past emission standard, applying a new tougher Euro 6 standard," he said.
