Headache and Eye Irritation... Hyundai Grandeur Interior Air Quality Fails Standards

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport '21 New Car Interior Air Quality Survey'
Grandeur Exceeded Standards, Improvement Measures Completed

Hyundai Grandeur

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 28th that it conducted an indoor air quality survey on 18 models from 6 domestic manufacturers produced and sold last year, and found that the Hyundai Grandeur (2.5 gasoline) exceeded the recommended standards, leading to corrective measures.

Since 2011, the Ministry has annually investigated whether newly produced and sold vehicles meet the recommended standards for volatile harmful substances emitted from interior materials and has published the results.

The 2021 indoor air quality survey results showed that the Hyundai Grandeur exceeded the recommended standard for toluene, one of eight harmful substances.

Toluene is a volatile organic compound emitted from automotive parts finishing materials or paint coatings. Although it is a non-carcinogenic substance, it generally causes the characteristic smell of new cars and can induce symptoms such as headaches or eye irritation.

The Ministry confirmed the improvement status and conducted additional tests on five randomly selected vehicles in February this year to verify whether currently produced vehicles meet the standards. All five vehicles were confirmed to satisfy the recommended standards.

Hyundai Motor Company stated, "We estimate that the cause of exceeding the recommended standard was contamination of the drying equipment used during the manufacturing process of the console box storage parts by toluene, resulting in levels above the standard in the 'equipment → parts → vehicle' sequence." They added, "To improve this, we have revised the management regulations for the parts drying process and the auxiliary materials of the equipment used in production to minimize volatile harmful substances."

Hyundai Motor emphasized that since the GV80, which exceeded the toluene standard last year, was produced by Hyundai Motor Group (Genesis), they are making efforts to improve the management of interior trim parts and overall process control.

Baek Seok-ju, Director of the Automobile Policy Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "We will actively encourage manufacturers to improve indoor air quality management through strict investigations," and added, "We plan to improve the system so that manufacturers and vehicles exceeding the indoor air quality recommended standards can be continuously monitored."

Meanwhile, imported vehicles enter the country after 2 to 3 months (transportation period) post-production, during which harmful substances volatilize, so the indoor air quality survey is replaced by the indoor air quality result records submitted by the manufacturers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.