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Suzuki raided in Japan over fuel economy irregularities

The headquarters of Suzuki have been raided by the Japanese authorities as part of on-going investigations into the company's irregular fuel economy calculation processes.


On May 18, Suzuki admitted that it had used an improper and illegal testing procedure to calculate its fuel economy numbers for models sold in Japan.

According to the BBC, the Japanese government conducted the raids in order to find evidence that either supports or refutes Suzuki's assertion that its actions were done out of expediency and not out of a desire to fool the car buying public.

Following its initial admission, the company stated that after re-running the tests in the proper manner, “all certified [fuel economy] values remained within the range of measurement deviation”. As such, Suzuki saw no need to amend the fuel consumption numbers for its domestic market vehicles.

Above: New Suzuki Baleno

Earlier this week, Suzuki announced further findings in its interim report to the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT).

The number of models affected by the fuel economy scandal has grown from 16 to 26, with 12 vehicles supplied to other car makers under badge engineering agreements now included.

As it had previously admitted, Suzuki didn't directly the run the coasting test as required by law. Instead it used rolling resistance data built up from “measured data of individual components such as tyres, brakes and transmission”.

For this, Suzuki blamed the 2008 global financial crisis for cutting available funds for "necessary infrastructure", improving technology, and an inability to "allocate sufficient manpower for the coasting test" due to "increased workload of developing new models and engines".

The company insists that "the issue does not apply to our products sold outside Japan".

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