U.S. Fines Automakers Hyundai and Kia for Misstating Mileage

[plus 3 golfer]

Sound familiar:

 

"In the largest-ever penalty for a violation of the Clean Air Act, the Korean automakers Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors will pay the federal government a combined $300 million as part of a settlement for overstating vehicle fuel-economy standards on 1.2 million cars...

 

For years Hyundai and Kia built their brands around the idea that their cars got better mileage than their competitors, a claim they promoted in ads that denigrated less efficient rivals....

 

But in 2012, Hyundai and Kia, which are both owned by the Hyundai Motor Group, acknowledged that they had overstated the fuel economy of vehicles sold in the United States over the previous two years. The admission came after an E.P.A. investigation into consumer complaints that their cars were underperforming the official mileage estimates on the window stickers of new cars.

 

Hyundai and Kia apologized for what they called “procedural errors” in testing that resulted in incorrect mileage stickers on some of their most popular models, including the Hyundai Elantra and Kia Rio. On Monday, the companies continued to say that the misstatement of fuel mileage was inadvertent and that they did not intentionally mislead customers....

 

Hyundai .. reimbursed affected customers and fully cooperated with the E.P.A. throughout the course of its investigation...

 

This is the first enforcement action we’ve seen on greenhouse gas regulations, and they came out of the gate with the largest settlement in the history of the Clean Air Act"-  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/us/politics/us-fines-korean-automakers-for-misstating-mileage.html

[jdbob]

I wonder if Ford is next...

[fbov]

I doubt Ford would, because:

- the first time, they were following E.P.A. rules, and

- the second time, they volunteered the information, in the absence of an E.P.A. investigation.

 

The key is in the wording:

Hyundai was penalized "after an E.P.A. investigation into consumer complaints...", just as GM was fined "for failing to report defective ignition switches..."

 

Have fun,

Frank

[Adrian_L]

If you ask me, letting automakers state their own mileage numbers is a recipe for disaster.  It's kind of like asking parents to rate the attractiveness of their kids.

 

But as to Ford's situation a)it happened a long time ago and b)Ford was proactive in "correcting" the problem.

[plus 3 golfer]

IMO, the question is why did it take about a year after the 1st FE change for the error in the dyno coefficients used for road load HP be discovered (2nd change).  One would think that Ford would and should have been all over the EPA test procedure and discovered the dyno error when retesting for the 1st FE change.   If EPA's investigation finds the error truly was "inadvertent, then perhaps no fine.  But shouldn't there still be a fine as no fine indicates that it's okay to be lax in following EPA testing procedures (for vehicles, point sources and so forth) as long as it was inadvertent?   IMO, no fine sets a "bad" precedence.  EPA issues fines often for point sources albeit rather small.

 

The fine for Hyundai  per affected vehicle is rather small at $250  (300 million / 1.2 million).  How many Ford cars are affected by their error?  60,000?  That would be a fine of $15 million for Ford should EPA decide to fine Ford and use the Hyundai number as a basis (which makes sense to me).

 

Also, just like other EPA compliance testing and monitoring, it's up to the owners of the business to monitor, test, and report EPA compliance data. So, I doubt we will see any change for vehicle emissions testing and FE data even though it may be a recipe for disaster to continue to let auto manufacturers do their own certification.  Ford's reimbursement to owners for the two FE changes is likely around $35 million.  But what about the emissions over and above the EPA certified amounts?  Shouldn't there be a penalty for that?

 

One more point as to why I believe Ford should be fined.  The issue with Hyundai FE appears to be the similar to Ford's error in that the Road Load HP is too low and thus there will be less fuel used and less emissions certified.  In fact EPA says the Hyundai affected vehicles will emit "4.75 million metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) in excess of what the automakers certified to the EPA."

 

"The United States alleged that each Hyundai and Kia vehicle identified by the table below has a higher road load force than was described in the application for the COC for the vehicle. Accurate road load force is critical for obtaining accurate results in the vehicle emission testing that determines GHG emissions and fuel economy. Therefore, each production vehicle within the test groups identified by the table below does not conform in a material respect, namely road load force, to the vehicle specifications described in the corresponding COC application. "  = http://www2.epa.gov/enforcement/hyundai-and-kia-clean-air-act-settlement

Edited November 5, 2014 by Plus 3 Golfer

[fbov]

FYI, CU sent out a questionaire yesterday and since I was indisposed when it came in, I completed the survey. The topic turned out to be Hyundai real-world mileage... we own an Elantra. my wife's car, which she chose based on EPA mileage ratings, orignally 29/40, now 28/38 city/highway. While I've been able to achieve the updated EPA highway ratings averaging 70 mph on a long roundtrip, I was driving solo... I kept defrost off (and so AC off as well) and shifted the tranny manually into 6th, so cruise control couldn't downshift going up hills. She gets ~25 mpg around town, and is disappointed... blames me because she wanted a hybrid, and I got one. (Thanks to her, of course; we inherited her father's car.)

 

I gave CU contact information, so if one of their writers contacts me, we'll have an interesting conversation... I completed the survey because I suspected this would be the case.

 

Have fun,

Frank

[plus 3 golfer]

FYI, CU sent out a questionaire yesterday and since I was indisposed when it came in, I completed the survey. The topic turned out to be Hyundai real-world mileage... we own an Elantra. my wife's car, which she chose based on EPA mileage ratings, orignally 29/40, now 28/38 city/highway. While I've been able to achieve the updated EPA highway ratings averaging 70 mph on a long roundtrip, I was driving solo... I kept defrost off (and so AC off as well) and shifted the tranny manually into 6th, so cruise control couldn't downshift going up hills. She gets ~25 mpg around town, and is disappointed... blames me because she wanted a hybrid, and I got one. (Thanks to her, of course; we inherited her father's car.)

 

I gave CU contact information, so if one of their writers contacts me, we'll have an interesting conversation... I completed the survey because I suspected this would be the case.

 

Have fun,

Frank

I probably got the same survey but for our C-Max as it appeared to be related to ones expectations on Monroney Label FE vs actual experienced and importance of FE in ones decision making. I also gave my contact info. There  were also several questions on actual FE (hand calculated) vs displayed FE by the vehicle.  It also contained questions on what one thought the EPA City, Hwy numbers meant and what I thought affects FE.  It asked what ones FE is, how it was obtained, and whether it's what one expected.  Bottom line, I told them I'm getting what I expected when I bought the car - around 41 mpg with around 60% highway above 65 mph..

 

I hope I'm contacted and am interested in seeing the results.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Plus 3 Golfer

[JAZ]

Ditto here.