The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached a settlement with K 2 Motor Corp., doing business as Spec-D Tuning, over Clean Air Act violations. K 2 Motor Corp, based out of the City of Industry, offered for sale and sold aftermarket auto parts that bypass or disable required emissions control systems, otherwise known as defeat devices. The company will pay $152,160 in penalties.
This settlement is part of EPA’s National Compliance Initiative, which focuses on stopping the manufacture, sale and installation of defeat devices on vehicles and engines. The enforcement action was taken in collaboration with the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
In addition to the EPA’s case, CARB also settled with K 2 Motor Corp. for emissions violations related to the sale of non-exempt aftermarket vehicle parts in California and collected a penalty of $88,696. The penalty will be used to fund air quality education for students in the San Diego area as well as EPA issued an information request to K 2 Motor Corp. regarding hardware and software the company had been selling since 2017. The company’s response to this information request indicated that it had sold almost 4,000 exhaust emission control delete hardware, including devices sometimes referred to as “straight” or “delete” pipes, used to bypass vehicle emission control systems.
Earlier this year, EPA also had two settlements with other automotive parts distributors in Southern California for violations of the Clean Air Act. Walnut, California-based Black Horse Racing Corp. and SLH Trading Corp., as well as Torrance, California-based Eurocode Tuning, Inc., sold aftermarket auto parts that bypass or disable required emissions control systems in motor vehicles. The companies agreed to pay $24,457 in combined penalties.
Published in the December 2021 Edition