United States v. Hyundai Motor Co.

On November 3, 2014, EPA and the Department of Justice announced that they had reached an agreement with the automakers Hyundai and Kia to resolve claims that the companies violated the Clean Air Act and California law by overstating fuel efficiency and understating greenhouse gas emissions for new motor vehicles from model years 2012 and 2013. Pursuant to the consent decree filed in the federal district court for the District of Columbia, the companies agreed to pay a $94-million civil penalty to the United States and a $6-million civil penalty to the California Air Resources Board. The consent decree also provided that the companies would forfeit greenhouse gas emissions credits that EPA said were worth more than $200 million. The credits could have been used to offset emissions from less fuel-efficient vehicle models or sold or traded to other companies for use as offsets. In addition, the companies agreed to undertake a number of corrective measures to prevent future miscalculations of greenhouse gas emissions, including audits of model year 2015 and 2016 vehicles and formation of an independent certification group to oversee new certification training and testing programs as well as enhanced data management and review for “coast down data” from testing of the companies’ vehicles.