Which American Automaker Blew The Whistle On Hyundai and Kia's Fuel Economy?

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

December 17, 2012

Last month, Hyundai and Kia announced they had overstated their claims for fuel economy on a number of 2011 to 2013 model year vehicles. Now, the starting point of this whole incident could be from a phone call by a vice-president of an American automaker.

Automotive News reports that Margo Oge, retired head of the EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality got a phone call from a "credible" senior VP of a domestic automaker that accused the two Korean brands of ""cheating" to get inflated mpg numbers." Oge didn't divulge the VP or the automaker.

Automotive News then contacted Chrysler, Ford, and GM asking if they were the automaker who made the phone call. The responses follow,

"It's not us," said Chrysler spokesman Eric Mayne.

"We cannot comment on any specific discussions, but Ford routinely speaks with policymakers about a wide variety of issues affecting our industry. We have been -- and remain -- an advocate of driving real fuel economy gains because it is in the best interest of our customers," said a Ford spokesman in an e-mail.

"We don't conduct our business in that manner," said GM spokeswoman Sharon Basel in an e-mail. Basel would go onto say the company would not bring in the Government to resolve a dispute.

Out of the three, Ford's response doesn't quite pass the Automotive News' smell test. The report does point out that PR people don't always know the goings on of senior management.

Will we find out who made the phone call? Maybe, but its highly doubtful.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.