German luxury carmaker BMW faces criminal charges, a fine and further recall for not only allegedly concealing defects responsible for 52 vehicle fires in Korea, but also for delaying recalls to fix the problem.
On Monday, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced the punitive measures against BMW based on the final results of a months-long probe by an investigative panel of civilian experts and government officials.
The panel found the fires were caused by faulty parts in the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system designed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel engines. The finding came after BMW Korea recalled 172,080 cars including the 520d models this year ― 106,317 in July and an additional 65,763 until October.
The ministry ordered BMW to replace all EGR systems in the recalled vehicles and to conduct further checks on the durability of the system. It referred the case to prosecutors for criminal investigation. It added the government will decide whether to order more recalls.
The punitive action also includes a decision to impose a fine of 11.2 billion won ($9.9 million) on BMW. A ministry official said the sum was targeted against only 22,670 recalled cars which were sold after June 30, 2016. If including all the recalled vehicles, the total could reach 260 billion won.
What is noteworthy is that the government discovered a faulty design in the EGR unit sparked the fires. BMW has so far denied any design defects.
Even after the announcement of the probe, the carmaker repeated its earlier position that the fires were caused by coolant leaks in the EGR coolers, saying that combined with carbon and oil sediment the leaks could combust and trigger fires when the cars were driven at high speeds for long periods of time.
BMW argues the problem could be solved by changing only the faulty EGR coolers. This argument is different from what the investigation panel said: The fundamental cause of the problem is the lack of design capacity of the EGR system.
According to the transport ministry, BMW had lied to cover up the problem. BMW said it first acknowledged the EGR system causing fires in July this year. But the ministry pointed out BMW was aware of the problem since 2015 when it set up a taskforce to tackle the issue.
If that is the case, BMW cannot deflect criticism for trying to play down the severity of the problem and making efforts to recall a smaller number of cars than it should have during its first recall in July.
Therefore it is not too much to say that BMW has disregarded the safety of its products, paying little heed to drivers' complaints about the cars' structural problem. BMW should no longer attempt to pass the buck to parts makers. It must admit design defects and correct them to make safer vehicles.
The Korean authorities need to do more to prove BMW's faulty design and get tougher on any such attempts to hide defects and delay recalls. They also should strengthen safety regulations and revise laws to force violators to pay far higher fines for punitive damages.