Hyundai sued for false advertisement of safety features

KUALA LUMPUR: Automakers getting sued by car owners is not a rare occurrence and one such case occurred recently with the South Korean automaker, Hyundai. An owner of Ioniq Limited recently filed a class-action lawsuit against the automaker in California. Why? Well, in this case, for selling the car with safety features that didn't exist for real.

As reported by Car Complaints, Hyundai falsely advertised the Ioniq with Rear Cross-Traffic Collision-Avoidance Assist and Blind-Spot Collision-Avoidance Assist systems. However, in reality, the said Hyundai EV is only tuned with Warning systems and not Assist systems as claimed.

Wondering how the two are different and what actually the fuss is all about? Well while the Warning system only warns the driver of imminent danger with no role to play in the car's mechanicals, the Assist system will apply brakes when necessary.

According to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court, the Monroney label (a window sticker displaying the car's technical info) on the plaintiff's vehicle clearly stated the car is tuned with Assist systems. The automaker, however, told him that it should not be the case as the Ioniq Limited is fitted with only warning systems. No image of the said Monroney label is shared in the Car Complaints reports, nor does it specify the Inoiq variant involved in the lawsuit.

Hyundai US offers the Ioniq Hybrid in three variant options - SE, SEL, and Limited; all tuned with Blind-Spot Collision Warning with Rear Cross-Traffic Collision Warning only. No Ioniq model, electric or PHEV comes with the Assist system.

According to the owner, he time and again contacted Hyundai on the issue but it was all in vain as no solution was offered.

"Hyundai deceptively marketed, advertised, sold and leased the 2020 Ioniqs to customers nationwide. And those customers allegedly had no safe or practical method of confirming if the cars were equipped with the systems or verify if the systems functioned properly" states Ioniq class-action suit.

Also Read: Hyundai launched a new sub-brand “IONIQ” for electric vehicles