A Hyundai employee who provided key information about a defective engine in vehicles manufactured by the Korean carmaker was awarded $24 million by the U.S. auto safety regulator. In 2016, Kim Gwang-ho informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that his employer, Hyundai was not addressing a design flaw linked to its Theta II engines, which were prone to seizing up and even catching fire. Kim provided an internal report from the quality strategy team to management that their inaction in addressing the engine fault would cause an increase in crashes.
After NHTSA officials received the information, they began an investigation in 2017 and found out that Hyundai and its subsidiary Kia did recall vehicles for this defect but the recall was too late and the information provided about the issue was inaccurate according to them. In 2020, Hyundai and Kia agreed to pay a record $210 million in civil penalty for delaying the recall of their vehicles after they learned about the defective engine.