Suzuki Report
to MLIT on Investigation
Further to the instruction
from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT)
regarding investigation of the actual emissions and fuel efficiency tests,
Suzuki reported the result of investigation to the ministry on May 18, 2016.
“As the outcome of our
internal investigation, acts of injustice, such as manipulation of fuel efficiency
data were not found. Meanwhile, some discrepancies were found in the automobile
emission and fuel efficiency testing process between the regulation by MLIT and
the actual method carried out by Suzuki,” said a Suzuki press statement.
SMC expressed its deep
apologies to all its customers and stakeholders on this issue. SMC mentioned
that the measuring method adopted by the company was different from regulations
specified by the government. The company had reviewed the measuring process of
driving resistance of all 16 models currently available for sale. It was found
that instead of actually measured data of the car, the submitted driving
resistance data at the time of application for certificate was a build-up of actually
measured data of individual components such as tyres, brakes and transmission from
rolling resistance tests and air resistance tests in the wind tunnel and upon
verification of adequateness compared with actually measured data of the car
through coasting test.
SMC explained the cause of
this issue. It said it considered that the background lay in the fact that
Sagara proving ground owned by the company was located on top on a hill close
to sea, where it is significantly affected by weather conditions such as
influence of wind and carrying out tests were difficult. The recent
improvements in fuel efficiency technology accompanied by reduced rolling resistance
and vehicle weight have greater tendency for cars to be influenced by wind as well
as results spread in wider variations. In case of adopting tyres with less
rolling resistance, for an example, it is difficult to perceive the effect
without variation in data, and have to increase the number of tests, the
company explained.
In the course of the
investigation, the company measured actual data through coasting test in
addition to the data already obtained by the time of application for
certificate. As the result of verification of all certified fuel efficiency
value with these actual data through coasting test, all certified values
remained within the range of measurement deviation.
Therefore, it considered it
not necessary to amend the driving resistance value applied, nor the fuel
efficiency value measured using the driving resistance value. As for
performance regarding emissions, it complies with the safety standards and the
company considered it does not have any problems. Suzuki assured users to
continue use of its products at ease.
Suzuki subject to
investigation
Mini-vehicles
Alto(Launched
on 22nd December, 2014)
Alto Lapin(Launched
on 3rd June, 2015)
Wagon R(Launched
on 19th September, 2012)
Hustler(Launched
on 8th January, 2014)
Spacia(Launched
on 15th March, 2013)
Every(Launched
on 18th February, 2015)
Carry(Launched
on 20th September, 2013)
Jimny(Running
change in 2010)
Ordinary and large motor vehicles
Solio(Launched
on 26thAugust, 2015)
Ignis(Launched
on 18th February, 2016)
Baleno(Launched
on 9th March, 2016)
SX4 S-CROSS(Launched
on 19th February, 2015)
Swift(Launched
on 18th September, 2010)
Escudo 2.4(Running
change in 2012)
Escudo(Launched
on 15th October, 2015)
Jimny Sierra(Running
change in 2010)
The above issues do not apply
to products sold under Suzuki badge outside Japan, the company noted.