by david shepardson washington the senate commerce committees republican chairman and ranking democrat said on wednesday they have asked top us executives at hyundai motor co and kia motors corp to testify at a nov 14 hearing on reports of engine fires involving vehicles from the korean automakers the request comes after safety advocates raised concerns about fires in vehicles not involved in collisions the nonprofit consumer advocacy group center for auto safety said last week that 103 fire complaints had been filed with us safety regulators since june 12 and urged an immediate recall of nearly 3 million vehicles neither hyundai nor kia had any immediate comment advt in may 2017 the national highway traffic safety administration nhtsa an agency of the us department of transportation opened a formal investigation into the recall of nearly 17 million hyundai and kia vehicles over engine defects a south korean whistleblower in 2016 reported concerns to nhtsa which has been probing the timeliness of three recalls carried out in the united states and whether they covered enough vehicles senator bill nelson the top democrat on the commerce committee said a noncollision fire death had been reported last year in a 2014 kia soul weve got to get to the bottom of whats causing these fires nelson said in a statement car owners need to know if their vehicles are safe the letter to the automakers also signed by senator john thune who chairs the committee said the hearing will also examine efforts to mitigate vehicle fires and promptly identify and respond to defects that may pose a fire risk and invites the chief executives of hyundai and kias us units to testify or their designee a nhtsa spokeswoman did not immediately comment in 2015 hyundai recalled 470000 us sonata sedans saying engine failure would result in a vehicle stall increasing the risk of a crash at that time affiliate kia did not recall its vehicles which share the same theta ii engines advt in march 2017 hyundai expanded its original us recall to 572000 sonata and santa fe sport vehicles with theta ii engines citing the same issue involving manufacturing debris the nhtsa said on the same day kia also recalled 618160 optima sorento and sportage vehicles all of which use the same engine the recall which was also conducted in canada and south korea cost the automakers an estimated 360 billion won 31930 million the center for auto safety filed a petition in june seeking a defect investigation over engine fires in 20112014 kia optima and sorento vehicles and hyundai sonata and santa fe vehicles from the same model years in response nhtsa said in august that the majority of the fires cited in the petition appear to be related to the engine failures covered by the investigations announced in may 2017 reuters published on oct 18 2018 at 0830 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment