Nissan Motor Company has vigorously denied accusations by the South Korean government that it has used an emissions defeat device on the British-built Qashqai.

The South Korean government independently tested real-world emissions of 20 diesel cars in the wake of the Volkswagen emission scandal and found that the Nissan's emissions-reducing Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system stopped operating when the engine's temperature reached 35 degrees Celsius.

"Usually, some cars turn off the emission reduction device when the temperature reaches 50 degrees Celsius, to prevent the engine from overheating.' The Qashqai was the only vehicle that turned it off at 35 degrees,” said a government spokesman.

The South Korean government has announced it will fine the company 330 million won (Rs 1.9 crore) for manipulating emissions tests, and ordered Nissan to recall all affected vehicles. To date, 814 Qashqais have been sold in South Korea.

However, a Nissan statement said: "Nissan does not manipulate data related to our vehicles. The Nissan Qashqai has been correctly homologated under Korean regulations. Nissan has not and does not employ illegal defeat or cheat devices in any of the cars that we make. Furthermore, following stringent testing using similar standards to the Korean tests, EU authorities have concluded that Nissan vehicles they tested used no illegal defeat device. Although the conclusions reached by the Korean authorities are inconsistent with those of other regulators, Nissan will carefully assess and consider appropriate next steps. Nissan is committed to upholding the law and meeting or exceeding regulations in every market where we operate. We are continuing to work with the Korean authorities."

Last week, Nissan agreed to a deal to take a 34% stake in Mitsubishi, after the latter was forced to admit that it had cheated fuel economy tests in Japan and its share price plummeted.