Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) is on investigation after they found exaggerated fuel economy of Audi A6.

An officer at the MOLIT said that Audi A6 3.0 TDI turned out to be exceeding the permitted tolerance of fuel economy on the conformity test.

The MOLIT has been doing conformity test since last year on the cars that were self-certified for fuel economy. This year, 10 models are subject to the tests : Hyundai’s new Genesis, Maxcruz and Grandeur Hybrid, Kia’s new Soul, GM Korea’s Chevrolet Cruize, Ssangyong’s Chairman H, Renault-Samsung’s QM3, Toyota’s Prius, Ford’s Explorer, and Audi’s A6.

Beforehand, GM Korea voluntarily corrected official fuel economy for Chevrolet Cruze 1.8 model. GM Korea investigated it by themselves in line with the MOLIT’s plan for conforrmity test, and then accepted that Cruze 1.8 exceeds the declared figures. And so they notified the fact to the government, corrected the official figures, and remunerated the equivalent fuel prices to the owners.

The MOLIT, before an official announcement, informed Audi of the fact that A6 3.0 TDI model has discrepancy of fuel economy. The government is leading Audi to take the voluntary actions.

In this regard, Audi is of the opinion that “A6 has no alteration with official fuel efficiency.”

Of course, the MOLIT’s confirmity tests are not completed yet, and so Audi’s A6 has not received any negative judgement. Extra-investigations might turn out to be within the tolerance at the best and pass the test. However, their options will be quite few for Audi to take after the MOLIT’s official announcement.

When they got a non-conformity result from the MOLIT, Audi shall be subject to a penalty amounting up to 1 billion won based on the Automobile Management Law. When Audi does not comply with the ruling, the government will even order suspension of sales. On the contrary, when Audi voluntarily reports of non-conformity and reimburse the discrepancy, they may be favored with reduced penalty.

Audi can not admit their default, however, without any confirmative results. In view of its global brand image, the issue is required to be discussed fully with the German head office. Furthermore, A6 is one of the most popular models since the 7th generation was released in August 2011 with a total sales of about 10,000 units, and so the reimburse amount will be substantial. At the moment, Audi replied that “We are only waiting for the final results.”

In the meantime, the MOLIT’s conformity investigation last year revealed that both Hyundai Santafe 2..0 2WD and Ssangyong Korando Sports 2.0 4WD did not comply with the fuel efficiency declarations. Hyundai Motor revised the efficiency value for Santafe 2.0 2WD to 13.8g/km from14.4g/km last June, and announced a compensation of 400K won to each owner.