Anchor: A joint investigation team probing a series of BMW vehicles catching fire has concluded that the German carmaker knew about defects in the cars months before its official announcement and intentionally concealed their knowledge. 
Our Bae Joo-yon has more. 

Report: Back in August, BMW Korea Chairman Kim Hyo-joon announced that the German carmaker first became aware in November, 2016 of defects that caused some of its vehicles to catch fire. 

But according to an internal BMW document that KBS acquired, some cars began to catch fire in January 2016 due to faulty exhaust gas recirculation(EGR) modules. This document indicates that BMW had concealed its knowledge of the defects for some nine months, in violation of the nation’s Vehicle Administration Law.

The joint probe team also believes BMW lied when it said it had concluded determining the exact cause of the car fires in June of this year. 

The probe team cited that for its 2017 520d model, BMW undertook major changes in its parts, including increasing the size of the radiator for better cooling effect and changing the EGR valve into a separable type. 

Such changes were apparently made to prevent valve malfunction and fixation. These are the same factors that BMW had cited in August when it revealed its assessment of what might have caused the fires. 

When considering that it usually takes one year to undertake changes in parts, BMW is believed to have launched the cited changes in December 2015 after possibly concluding analysis on what caused the fires. The team also confirmed from suppliers of those parts that the design change was made in December 2015.  

Based on such findings, the joint probe team believes BMW concealed the defects and put off correcting the flaws. 

On the latest assessment, BMW avoided making any comment, saying the probe team has yet to announce its final results. 

With the latest development, the probe team has delayed announcing its final probe results from early December to late December.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.