The reason was a request for legal assistance from the South Korean authorities in 2020, which involved dozens of engine fires in BMW cars in South Korea in 2018, the Bavarian carmaker said.
The public prosecutor’s office in Seoul recently filed charges against BMW Korea and employees there on suspicion of concealing technical defects and starting recalls too late, said a BMW spokesman in Munich. The investigations by the Korean authorities against BMW AG were discontinued in May.
The spokesman emphasized that the investigations had never referred to the allegation of the use of impermissible defeat devices. The BMW Group is cooperating fully with the authorities in Korea as well as with the Munich I public prosecutor.
4,400 employees work at the BMW engine plant in Steyr. According to the company, 393,700 diesel and 603,000 petrol engines, including a quarter of all engines for hybrid drives, were produced in 2020.
Source: Nachrichten
