As a new stricter emission standard EURO 6 has been implemented since September 2014, some imported cars are queuing for certification of emissions, and so importers are concerned about the delaying new car releases, or warehousing several months at the PDI.

According to importers and government agency in charge of emission certification, since the EURO 6 is implemented, all new models introduced since September this year should meet the new standards and all the existing cars are also required to comply with the new regulations by September 2015. Accordingly importers have no other ways but to bring into new models that meet the EURO 6 or should hurry to get the certification before September.

Some importers however are complaining about the long span for certifying, which sometimes takes over 6 months while it usually took only 2~3 months before. But the agency is of the opinion that if relevant preparations are well done by importers, one month will be enough for certification, and so the retardation is not surely related with EURO 6 standards.

Imported car brands in such a delay include some 3~4 models this year, that was postponed in launching in Korea due to the said longer certification period. For example, importer A was originally scheduled to introduce a new diesel model of EURO 6 has been delayed. Importer B also is anxious about putting off a new car model launch that was to be launched last summer. Several hundreds of imported cars were tied up at the PDI.

Some imported both gasoline and diesel cars, but only gas model passed the test and put in the market. The diesel model is expected to get the certification next year for releasing in Korea.

On the contrary, there are some brands that obtained certifications earlier than expected. Importer C passed EURO 6 in a month as was the case for the previous standard certification.

Importers are complaining about the stricter certification procedures, but the government agency says there is no difference from the previous system.

A researcher Jin-Woo Hwang who is in charge of emission certification at National Institute for Environmental Research explained that “Imported cars sometimes miss the details in documenting, such as explanation on functional structure of specific components, OBD, etc., that usually causes the retardation.” “Korea is mutually recognizing the certification of the EU and the U.S., but the emission tests can not be adopted as they are as the test reports sometimes are incomprehensible or incomparable.” he added.

“Korea’s certification procedure is shorter in time and simpler in test procedure compared with that of the U.S.” and “Car producers should take into consideration the certification into the lead time for launching, but importers are most of the case bring the models that were already released in other markets, and so they schedule for launching in Korea in 2~3 months, which may cause retardation when there is any request for complementary documents or test items to be added.” he explained.

In the meantime, total 23 imported car models have obtained the EURO 6 certifications. Of the 23 models, except for five gasoline models, diesel models numbered 18 for VW, Volvo, and MINI.