A South Korean court has sided with the government and ruled Nissan Motor had used a ‘defeat device’ in a diesel version of the Qashqai crossover, which the automaker denies.
The Qashqai is an English built model with a French Renault 1.6 diesel.
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Reuters noted Nissan sued South Korea’s environment ministry last year after it claimed the automaker cheated on emissions of the Qashqai diesel model and fined it KRW330m (US$279,900). The ministry had also halted sales of the model in the country and ordered a recall of 814 Qashqais.
The report said South Korea was the only country to accuse Nissan of emissions test cheating and the ruling by the Seoul Administrative Court hurt Nissan’s image.
The court said it believed the automaker used the defeat device to deactivate its emissions reduction system under regular driving which led to excess emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOx).
“It is reasonable to believe that the vehicle in this case achieved certification with false and other illegal means,” the court said in its ruling.
Nissan said the court ruling was “regrettable.”
“There is no change in our stance that we have not used any illegal devices in our vehicles,” a Nissan Motor spokeswoman told Reuters.
“We will consider possible measures,” she added, but did not elaborate.
Reuters said the government had conducted tests on 20 diesel vehicles from various automakers after it had found Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) had manipulated emissions of some vehicles sold in the country.
