The Republican chairman together with the ranking Democrat member of the US Senate Commerce Committee said on Wednesday that they had called on the top US executives of Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. for questioning and testimony at a Senate hearing on November 14 following the countless reports of engine fire troubles from vehicles made by the two South Korean automakers.
Senator Bill Nelson of the Commerce Committee said that the non-collision fire incidents will include the fatality case that was reported in 2017 involving a 2014 Kia Soul.
In a statement, the Democrat senator from Florida said that it is their duty to find out the reason behind these engine fires.
Sen. John Thune, who chairs the committee, said that the hearing also aims to find out the efforts made by the brands to mitigate the issues as well as their response to it.
The request, according to AutoNews, comes after car safety advocates raised concerns about vehicle fires which do not necessarily involve collisions.
The Center for Auto Safety (CAS), for instance, reported last week that there were about 103 engine fire complaints filed with US safety regulators since June of this year.
Hyundai, on its case, issued a statement confirming the receipt of the Senate's appearance order. As indicated in this report, the company is currently reviewing the details of the request. In a statement cited, Hyundai is actively monitoring and evaluating the raised concerns of non-collision engine fires. The firm also pledged to act swiftly on the matter, including its decision to recall any vehicles from its brand having safety-related defects.
Kia, Korea's second-largest auto company, has yet to give its comment on the issue.
Recall of Hyundai and Kia Vehicles
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in May 2017 launched an investigation into the recall of close to 2 million vehicles made by Hyundai and Kia for cases of engine defects.
This occurred after an unnamed source from South Korea first tipped the agency in 2016. The NHTSA, meanwhile, has been probing the timeliness on which the recalls were carried out across the United States and if Kia and Hyundai had fully covered the affected vehicles.
Consumer Complaints
According to reports, in NHTSA alone, the office received more than 220 consumer complaints involving spontaneous fire-breakout of engines made by either Kia or Hyundai.
Federal regulators were also raising concerns about multiple complaints about engine fire troubles which resulted in collisions.
The NHTSA had already ordered Hyundai and Kia to conduct a recall for engine fixes way back in 2015 and in 2017. CAS, on the other hand, said that those previous recalls weren't effective enough since there were repaired vehicles that had caught fire again later.
