South Korean prosecutors seize Volkswagen, Audi vehicles

Confiscated models include Audi's A1 and A3 and Volkswagen's Golf

South Korean prosecutors on Wednesday seized hundreds of Volkswagen and Audi vehicles for suspected violation of permissible emissions standard.

The Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office, which has been investigating the German automaker's emissions fabrication case, confiscated about 950 vehicles parked in a pre-delivery inspection centre in Pyeongtaek, Xinhua news agency reported.

The confiscated models included Audi's A1 and A3 and Volkswagen's Golf, according to the report.

The prosecution said the models in question were suspected of violating the permissible emissions standard for poisonous gas or failing to get an environment-related approval before being imported and sold here.

Those models were also found to have a leakage problem in exhaust tubes.

In March, prosecutors seized a small number of vehicles from the Pyeongtaek centre to see whether emissions test was faked with the models, but the appropriate test results failed to come out due to the leakage problem.

Volkswagen has faced plenty of lawsuits globally after admitting in September last year to fabricating emissions test in the US.

South Korea's environment ministry filed a criminal lawsuit in January against the Audi-Volkswagen Korea, the local unit of the German carmaker, for failing to submit sufficient information on its recall plan even after receiving an order to recall faulty models.

The prosecution said the confiscated models could have violated an air environmental protection law, noting that additional charges could be revealed during the ongoing investigations.