April 21, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Audi Volkswagen Korea on April 17 said it plans to ship back 13,000 vehicles, parked at its warehouse for over a year amid the emissions-rigging scandal, back to its headquarters.

“We are planning to send the remaining vehicles back to Germany,” Lee Soo-jin, a spokesperson of Audi VW Korea told The Investor. “We are still discussing the details and the exact schedule.”

The Korean unit started shipping back the cars parked at the carmaker’s pre-delivery inspection center in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, to the Emden Port in Germany. Some 1,500 diesel cars -- which include Audi’s A1, A3, VW’s Golf -- were shipped earlier in March. Last week, the automaker sent another 2,500 Audi and VW diesel models. 

The abandoned cars were shipped from Germany more than a year ago waiting to be delivered to local showrooms, until sales were halted in August last year, after the automaker was found guilty of cheating on emissions test results.

Despite rumors that VW is planning inventory sales at discounted prices here, the automaker decided to send them back as their recertification will take a long time, and they could become outdated, industry watchers say.

Earlier this month, three Bentley models that were banned from sales amid the diesel scandal earned recertification from the Environment Ministry.

While it is the first time for the German automaker to receive recertification approval from the Korean government since the scandal broke last year, it is not certain when the banned cars will get the green light for local sales. In August last year, the ministry revoked certification and halted sales of 32 models of Audi, VW and Bentley vehicles, in addition to imposing hefty fines for manipulating emissions and noise level test results.

Audi VW Korea said its primary focus is to recall its problematic cars as soon as possible.

The Environment Ministry on Jan. 12 approved VW’s stalled recall plan to fix 27,000 Tiguan sport utility vehicles to meet the emissions standards, after previously rejecting the proposals three times. The Tiguan vehicles are among the 125,522 cars the government ordered VW to recall in November 2015.

The ministry will review the remaining 99,000 vehicles for a recall.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)