Hyundai Auto Canada Guilty of Safety Violation, Transport Canada Says

Transport Canada said on Tuesday Hyundai Auto Canada Corp pleaded guilty to six different counts of criminal charges for violating the Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

Hyundai Auto Canada failed to send out notices of safety defect within the prescribed time period of 60 days, the statement said, and the company will pay a fine of $360,000.

“It is alarming that Hyundai failed to notify vehicle owners of a recall in a timely manner on six different occasions,” Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said.

The defects that affected nearly 300,000 vehicles were a part of the recalls issued by Hyundai in 2020 and 2021. Some of these recalls were safety risks related to possible vehicle fires, reduced braking performance and sudden loss of engine power.

“Hyundai Canada recognized that during the COVID pandemic, it was not meeting the precise timing requirements identified in the applicable regulations in a limited number of instances. However, we immediately corrected the issue and accepted responsibility,” the company said.

(Reporting by Priyamvada C in Bengaluru; editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Shounak Dasgupta)