Hyundai Payout Settled At $41.2 Million For Fuel Scandal

After four years since the scandal broke out, the South Korean automaker has reached a settlement of $41.2 million. This is including cars made from the Kia badge as well.

A brief history about the fuel scandal, on November 2, 2012, fateful day, Hyundai Motor America (Kia as well) came clean about misstating the fuel economy ratings for nearly 900,000 vehicles manufactured between 2011 to 2013 model years and sold in the United States.

Both the auto manufacturers were forced to reduce their fuel economy level by an average of 3 percent. W. C. Yang, CTO of Hyundai's R&D department said "I sincerely apologize to all affected Hyundai and Kia customers, and I regret these errors occurred,"

Post the damage and the subsequent correction was done, the U.S. legal system then reaped the gains in this mess-up because no one was above the law.

Hence, the settlement has been reached with a payout of $41.2 million as a result of continues legal action taken by the Attorneys General of 33 States and the District of Columbia.

As per Hyundai, the agreement it does not contain any admission of any wrongdoing or violations of any law.

Basically, Hyundai got out of the mess they were in scot-free except for the cash payout of $41.2 million.

This however, considerably low compared to the diesel gate scandal that Volkswagen got into which saw the German manufacturer cough up $14.7 billion to settle the 2.0-litre TDI issue in the United States.

David Zuchowski, the CEO of Hyundai Motor America said, that even with their adjusted ratings, they are encouraged that Hyundai continues to the lead the automotive industry in fuel efficiency and environmental performance.