美國就虛報油耗案處現代和起亞高額罰款

WASHINGTON — The Korean automakers Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors will pay the federal government a combined $300 million in penalties as part of a settlement for overstating vehicle fuel-economy standards on 1.2 million vehicles, the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency announced on Monday.

華盛頓——美國司法部(Justice Department)和國家環境保護局（Environmental Protection Agency，簡稱EPA）週一宣佈，韓國汽車製造商現代汽車(Hyundai Motor)和起亞汽車(Kia Motors)將向聯邦政府支付總計3億美元（約合18億元人民幣）罰款。這是就兩家制造商誇大120萬輛車的節油標準所達成和解的部分內容。

The penalty is the largest ever for a violation of the Clean Air Act, government officials said.

政府官員稱，這是有史以來因違反《清潔空氣法》(Clean Air Act)而開出的最高罰單。

Under the agreement, the automakers will pay $100 million in fines and forfeit an estimated $200 million in greenhouse gas emissions credits, which auto companies earn by building vehicles with lower emissions than are required by law.

相關協議規定，兩家汽車製造商將支付1億美元罰款，並且估計會失去價值2億美元的溫室氣體排放許可。汽車公司通過生產低於法定排放標準的車輛，才能獲得溫室氣體排放許可。

“This type of conduct quite simply will not be tolerated,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., said at a joint news conference at the Justice Department with Gina McCarthy, the E.P.A. administrator. The Justice Department, he added, “will never rest or waver in our determination to take action against any company that engages in such activities."

“決不能姑息這種行爲，”司法部長小埃裏克·H·霍爾德(Eric H. Holder Jr.)在司法部與EPA局長吉娜·麥卡錫(Gina McCarthy)舉行聯合新聞發佈會時說。他接着說，司法部“誓要打擊從事這類活動的公司，我們的決心絕不會鬆懈或動搖”。

Ms. McCarthy said that the action reinforced her agency’s determination to uphold the Clean Air Act. “Businesses that play by the rules shouldn’t have to compete with those breaking the law,” she said.

麥卡錫表示，這件事堅定了她領導的EPA捍衛《清潔空氣法》的決心。“不應該讓那些違法亂紀的企業，和遵紀守法的企業競爭，”她說。

In 2012, Hyundai and Kia, which are both owned by the Hyundai Motor Group, admitted that they had overstated the fuel economy of vehicles sold in the United States over the previous two years. The admission came after an E.P.A. investigation into consumer complaints that their cars were underperforming the official mileage estimates on the window stickers of new cars. Although few drivers achieve the mileage claimed on the stickers, the government requires automakers to conduct standardized tests to calculate the figures so that buyers can more easily compare the fuel efficiency of different models.

2012年，同屬現代汽車集團(Hyundai Motor Group)的現代汽車和起亞汽車，承認誇大了之前兩年在美銷售的車輛的節油能力。此前EPA接到消費者投訴，稱自己所購車輛的節油性能，低於新車車窗標籤上給出的官方節油估值，EPA隨即展開調查。儘管幾乎沒有駕駛員能達到標籤上宣稱的里程數，政府還是要求汽車製造商進行標準化測試，以計算出相關數據，這樣消費者就能更容易地比較不同車型的燃油效率。

At the time, both Hyundai and Kia apologized for what they called “procedural errors” in testing that resulted in incorrect mileage stickers on some of their most popular models, including the Hyundai Elantra and Kia Rio. The companies continue to say that the misstatement of fuel mileage was inadvertent and that they did not intentionally mislead customers.

當時，現代和起亞均表示道歉，稱測試過程中的“程序上的差錯”，導致現代伊蘭特(Elantra)和起亞銳歐(Rio)等部分最受歡迎的車型上出現了不正確的里程標籤。這兩家公司接着表示，錯誤的燃油里程信息是無意之舉，公司並非故意誤導消費者。

In an emailed statement on Monday, Chris Hosford, a spokesman for Hyundai, wrote: “To be clear, Hyundai’s view is that this was an honest mistake and there was a lack of clarity/broad latitude in E.P.A. rules and guidance that resulted in the issues outlined by the government.”

週一，現代汽車發言人克里斯·霍斯福德(Chris Hosford)在一份郵件聲明中寫道，“必須說明，現代汽車認爲這是無心之過，EPA的規定和指導並不明確，缺少足夠的迴旋餘地，導致了政府提出的那些問題。”

The settlement comes as the Obama administration has used the Clean Air Act to create and enforce new regulations aimed at reining in planet-warming pollution. In 2009, the E.P.A. released new fuel economy standards requiring automakers to aggressively increase average fuel mileage of passenger vehicles in order to cut carbon emissions from tailpipes.

達成和解時，奧巴馬政府已經利用《清潔空氣法》制定並實施了一些新的監管措施，旨在控制導致全球變暖的污染。2009年，EPA公佈了新的節油標準，要求汽車製造商大幅提高客運車輛的平均燃油里程，以減少碳排放量。

On Monday environmentalists praised the penalties on the two automakers.

週一，環保人士對處罰兩家汽車製造商一事表示讚揚。

“For many years, E.P.A. has enforced the Clean Air Act to make sure cars are as clean as they are advertised,'’ said Frank O’Donnell, president of the Group Clean Air Watch. “It is very encouraging to see that E.P.A. plans to make sure that climate-related emissions must also be as advertised.”

“多年來，EPA實施了《清潔空氣法》，確保車輛像廣告說的一樣清潔，”潔淨空氣觀察組織(Group Clean Air Watch)主席弗蘭克·奧多尼爾(Frank O’Donnell)說。“EPA計劃確保與氣候有關的排放行爲也必須達到廣告水平，這讓人倍受鼓舞。”

E.P.A. officials said they discovered the problems with the Hyundai and Kia vehicles in the course of auditing fuel-economy manufacturing programs. They concluded that the Korean automakers’ testing of fuel economy technologies included procedures that led to inaccurately high fuel-economy ratings for vehicles including Hyundai’s Accent, Elantra, Veloster and Santa Fe vehicles and Kia’s Rio and Soul vehicles.

EPA官員表示，他們在審計節油型汽車生產項目的過程中發現了現代及起亞汽車的問題。他們斷定，韓國汽車製造商節油技術測試中的一些程序導致汽車的節油性能評級偏高，出現不準確的數據，比如現代的雅紳特(Accent)、伊蘭特、飛思(Veloster)和聖達菲(Santa Fe)，以及起亞的銳歐和秀爾(Soul)車型。

That testing was done entirely in laboratories in Korea, government officials said. They said that as part of the settlement, the companies would pay to build a separate, American-based center for testing vehicle fuel economy.

政府官員稱，這些測試全部在韓國的實驗室完成。他們表示，作爲和解的一部分，兩家公司將出資在美國建立測試中心，檢測汽車的節油性能。