By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff Reporter
More than 40 percent of imported scooters and motorbikes failed to pass emissions inspection and manufacturers face a ban on future sales in Korea.
The National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) conducted a non-periodic inspection on 35 models of imported two-wheeled vehicles from October to December 2009 and banned sales of 16 of them. Five of them exceeded the emission standards and the other 11 did not submit test vehicles due to short supply.
There are 97 kinds of two-wheeled vehicles imported to Korea and the Transportation Pollution Research Center of NIER inspected the best-selling models first - the other 62 will be tested by March.
The five disqualified models for emissions are the Mini Hawk 125, Centro, Megelli 125r, HJ125T-16 and Max.
The Mini Hwak 125 failed the test last November and its authentication certificate is going through the cancellation process. Owners of Mini Hwaks can no longer register their vehicles. The other four models are being recalled.
The 11 models, which did not provide samples due to supply shortage, have to be inspected or they cannot be sold here.
Among the 35 models that passed the inspection, 19 were from China, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and the United States.
The non-periodic inspection is conducted before selling the vehicles to check whether they meet national environmental standards such as emissions limits.
"We will reinforce the inspection so no vehicles exceeding environmental standards can be imported and sold in Korea," an NIER official said. The institute said it would promote revising related laws so they could inspect two-wheeled vehicles that have already been imported and are currently on the road.