NHTSA Imposes $40 Million Fine to BMW North America for Safety Violations

Kuala Lumpur: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of United States (NHTSA) has slapped BMW North America with a $40 Million fine for violating the Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the NTHSA regulations. According to NHTSA, the German automaker failed to send the correct recall information of the 2014 Mini Cooper coupe, which failed the crash tests designed to check its compliance with the minimum safety standards.

When the regulator enquired BMW about the issue, the automaker stated that the vehicle was mistakenly labelled with the weight rating of heavier Cooper S and claimed that it would pass the safety test at heavier weight rating. In January 2015, BMW recalled all 2014-15 Cooper Coupe models to install additional foam padding on the side panels and to fix the wrong vehicle weight labelings in order to comply by the NHTSA's standards but when the regulator tested the heavier 2015 Cooper S models after removing the padding, the vehicle failed the safety tests just like the original Cooper models, thus forcing the automaker to include 2015 Cooper S models in its original recall and expand it in the same month.

The NHTSA says that the vehicles again failed the tests in July with additional side-impact protection. Later, the regular found that the automaker has not launched the service campaign it agreed to. This led the NHTSA to impose a $40 Million fine to BMW North America for not meeting its safety regulations. In 2012, the NHTSA slapped BMW with a $3 million fine for the same violations.

This is the second instance in recent months when U.S. regulators have fined a German automaker for not violating its safety regulations and the Motor Vehicle Safety Act. Earlier, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed various emissions testing violations made by Volkswagen AG. The revelation led to the infamous dieselgate scandal which led to the management shakeup, massive recalls, and fines for the company. Takata Corp – the Japanese airbags supplier for various leading automaker of the world, was also fined by NHTSA for safety violations, recently.

A BMW statement reads that the company is working to improve its processes and will work with NHTSA. The German automaker also said that it agreed to the consent order which includes an admission by the BMW North America that it did not comply in a timely fashion with various NHTSA reporting requirements.

Also Read: VW Releases List of 9 European Dieselgate-Affected Vehicles of 2016 Model Year