New scandal in Japan: three more companies artificially lower fuel consumption

9 August 2018

Now under the distribution were Suzuki, Mazda and Yamaha

In Japan, a new scandal erupted in the automotive sector. As reported by the Ministry of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism of Japan, the company Suzuki Motor, Mazda Motor and Yamaha Motor have cheated their customers and artificially lower fuel consumption.

In particular, it is stated that manufacturers have resorted to disturbances in the measurement technique, which led to the fact that the declared fuel consumption was lower than the real one. Often cheated Suzuki: according to media reports, about half of the 13 thousand cars, investigated in 2012, was discovered an increased "appetite". The manufacturer knew about it but stayed silent.

The equivalent figures for Mazda and Yamaha far below them, the proportion of "defective" cars and motorcycles is estimated at 3.8 and 2.1%, respectively.

It remains to be seen whether this data is any sanction against companies. Suzuki and Yamaha have already apologized to their clients. Representatives of Mazda said that in fact, those of 3.8% of inspections in which was recorded an increased fuel consumption, were not by regulations. In particular, exceeded the recommended speed that supposedly led to this result. Due to the small proportion of such cases at this it is easy to believe.

Meanwhile, the situation with the underestimation of the fuel consumption sometimes costly for Japanese companies. In 2016, it became known that Mitsubishi Motors has regularly used this move. After mark pleaded guilty and its shares fell significantly, which allowed Nissan to buy a controlling stake in Nissan (Nissan was close to this topic for the reason that some of the defective cars Mitsubishi produced for Nissan to be sold under the Nissan brand). In the end, at minimal cost to the Alliance Renault-Nissan turned to Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi.