Did Suzuki cheat in emissions and fuel economy tests like other automakers? Company head Toshihiro Suzuki says no, but admits there were irregularities in the methodology they used. This doesn’t sound much better.
“Some discrepancies were found in the automobile emission and fuel efficiency testing process between the regulation by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) and the actual method carried out by Suzuki and therefore Suzuki herewith reports on the issue as follows. We would like to express our deep apologies to all our customers and stakeholders on this issue,” the company said in a statement while adding that it did not find acts of injustice, such as manipulation of fuel efficiency data, through its internal investigation.
So, what exactly happened? Suzuki points to the fact that its Sagara proving ground is located on top of a hill close to sea, where it is significantly affected by weather conditions such as wind, and carrying out tests was difficult.
It appears the problem dates back to 2010 and affects 16 different models representing 2.1 million units in Japan. No word about overseas markets.
Confident this report won’t impact its financial results, Suzuki still lost 9.37% at the Tokyo Stock Exchange.