(Bloomberg) -- Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. are facing a fraud and air-pollution probe by Frankfurt prosecutors over allegations they used defeat devices in diesel cars to mask the harmful emissions pumped into the air.
Eight premises in Germany and Luxembourg were raided by 140 officers on Tuesday, prosecutors said in an emailed statement. They're investigating people at both automakers as well as at BorgWarner, Inc., which now owns Delphi Technologies Plc, one of two company that allegedly provided the software for the diesel engines, prosecutors said.
A Hyundai spokesman confirmed that the German offices were raided and said the company is cooperating with the authorities, declining to comment further. Representatives for Kia, BorgWarner and Robert Bosch GmbH, the other software supplier named by prosecutors, didn't immediately reply to emails seeking comment.
The case covers 210,000 cars sold until 2020 that, prosecutors say, were allegedly equipped with software that “massively” reduced or completely switched off emission reductions when the vehicles were used on the roads. Customers weren't told that they didn't comply with EU rules, according to the statement.
The diesel scandal has roiled the car industry since 2015 when U.S. authorities disclosed they were probing Volkswagen AG. It quickly spread to other carmakers and several remain embroiled in probes.
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