Dieselgate, arguably the biggest scandal that has ever rocked the automotive sphere saw Volkswagen faces countless charges and a lot of executives taken down as the result.
Now, another emission scandal is facing the same industry, but involves three different manufacturers, all accused of installing software in vehicles to cheat South Korea's testing system.
Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Nissan are the three manufacturers in the spotlight, and the accusations involve vehicles sold between 2012 and 2018. These vehicles are due to have their certification revoked before being recalled in South Korea.
Out of the three brands, Mercedes-Benz Korea is facing the biggest fine with a proposed $105 million penalty on the table for the German brand. Porsche Korea is up next with $1.3 million on the table, and then Nissan Korea is looking at $1.2 million.
Korean reports state that this is the biggest fine ever imposed on a single automaker by the Korean government, well eclipsing the $19 million that Audi Volkswagen Korea had to pay back in 2015.
Some 37,154 Mercedes-Benz vehicles are under the microscope in the investigation, and the 12 different models include the: C 200d, GLC 220 d 4MATIC, GLC 250 d 4MATIC and the ML 250 BlueTEC 4MATIC.
2,293 Quashqai models relate to Nissan's fine, and 934 Porsche Macan S Diesel models have the German brand in hot water.
“The Ministry of Environment continues to toughen diesel car emissions standards to reduce fine dust caused by diesel cars and we plan to strictly review and manage illegal emissions fabrication,” said Keum Han-Seung, a ministry official.
Mercedes-Benz wasn't too happy with that statement, and came back with:
“The reason we used the function in question is we have justifiable technological and legal grounds for its use,” also mentioning that newer models aren't affected by the findings.
If you aren't familiar with the cheating devices, they are designed to let the car know when an emission test is taking place, and significantly drop the amount of pollutants released.