Hyundai, Kia fined for delaying US recalls

Hyundai and Kia must pay $137 million in fines and safety improvements because they moved too slowly to recall more than 1 million vehicles with engines that can fail.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced the penalties Friday. They resolve a three-year government probe into the companies' behavior involving recalls of multiple models dating to the 2011 model year.

“It's critical that manufacturers appropriately recognize the urgency of their safety recall responsibilities and provide timely and candid information to the agency about all safety issues,” NHTSA Deputy Administrator James Owens said.

Hyundai will pay $54 million and invest $40 million to improve safety operations under an agreement reached with the agency. The company must build a field test and inspection laboratory in the U.S. and put new computer systems in place to analyze data to identify safety issues. Another $46 million in penalties will be deferred as long as the Korean automaker meets safety conditions, NHTSA said in a prepared statement.

Kia, which is affiliated with Hyundai, must pay $27 million and invest $16 million on safety performance measures. Another $27 million payment will be deferred as long as Kia behaves.

Kia will set up a U.S. safety office headed by a chief safety officer. Both companies will have to hire an independent third-party auditor to review their safety practices, and they committed to organizational improvements to identify and investigate potential U.S. safety issues.

Kia denied the allegations from the U.S. but said Friday that it wanted to avoid a protracted legal fight.

The U.S. safety agency opened its probe in 2017 after Hyundai recalled about 470,000 vehicles in September of 2015.