The EPA has withdrawn certification for off-road vehicles from four US importers, Hensim USA, Loncin USA, Peace Industry Group, and Seaseng, affecting 200,000 vehicles. All four companies used broker MotorScience Enterprise to handle their emissions testing. Three of the four companies also import scooters, but it appears no scooters were included in the action. The EPA alleges MotorScience provided “tailpipe emissions information was either incomplete or falsified.”
MotorScience has issued a response “irrevocably denying” the charges. The company handles “more than one hundred international automobile, motorcycle, and recreational vehicle manufacturers.”
Again, while no street-legal scooters were listed, the list of affected vehicles shows how hard it is to tell different models apart (Try Googling a few random model names and see what you come up with), and illustrates how importers use a single certification to import a wide variety of different products.
Thanks for the tip, Mr. Maddox.
Bonus: in other EPA news, Here’s a PDF of the Pep Boys settlement. Goodtimes.
Some speculation and opinion:
I wonder if various importers were bringing in the same products from the same manufacturer using the same certifications, and if so, if those were all included in the list. Loncin has one of the better reputations of Chinese importers that import under their own name. I’ve only ever seen Peace scooters at Dealer Expo, and they made a pretty weak impression on me. The other two, I’ve never heard of.
And of course, if MotorScience works with over 100 clients, it begs another big question, but I’m not even going to ask it.