Mazda, Suzuki, Yamaha Apologize for Improper Vehicle Tests

Within the past decade, many automakers have come under a deep scrutiny when it comes to emissions and fuel consumption tests. Major players have included the Volkswagen group, Mitsubishi Motors Corp, Nissan, Hyundai and Kia. The most recent ones to join this list include Mazda Motor Corp, Suzuki Motor Corp, and Yamaha Motor Co. The three companies admitted to producing fraudulent results by testing their vehicles improperly. This makes the companies the latest entries into the journal for compliance failures by automakers.

The results were only brought to the limelight after the government of Japan ordered the three companies to check on their operations. The doubt arose when the improper testing was revealed at Subaru Corp and Nissan Motor Co last year. The biggest compliance failure came from Volkswagen, who in 2015 admitted to installing a secret software in hundreds of thousands of diesel cars that were sold in the US, allowing them to cheat on the emissions tests.

In the case for the Japanese automakers, none of them broke any laws but the growing cases of the cheating on the tests have tarnished their reputation for the high-quality products and efficiency. One of the Japanese ministers said in a statement that the three companies tested their vehicles under invalid conditions, which resulted in slight deviations in the speeds of the vehicles. This slight deviation rendered the emissions and fuel efficiency tests invalid.

Out of the three companies, the largest share of the vehicles with improper testing was of Suzuki. Their sample test vehicles went as back as 2012, and the results found that nearly 50% of the total tested vehicles were inspected improperly. The number came out to be a staggering 12,819 units. This resulted in a drop of Suzuki shares by 6%.

The other two on the list had relatively lower percentages of improperly inspected vehicles. Mazda found irregularities in just 70 cases, a mere 4% of the total inspected cars. Yamaha had an even lower number of improperly inspected vehicles, the irregularities arising only in 2% of the total inspected vehicles. The shares of the two companies fell by 1% and 5% respectively. All the three companies held press conferences to apologize for the irregularities in the emissions and fuel efficiency tests.

Source: Reuters