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Subaru Manipulated Fuel Economy and Emissions Data of 903 Vehicles

On October 30, 2017, the MLIT issued a business improvement order to Subaru over nonconforming final vehicle inspections at the Gunma Main Plant and Yajima Plant in Japan. Among the ministry’s instructions, the automaker was ordered to undertake an investigation, which would result in a shameful report for Subaru.
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Submitted to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism on December 19, 2017, the report included testimonials from employees who stated that “certain data with respect to fuel economy and emissions may have been altered.” That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, Volkswagen and Mitsubishi weren’t alone in their pursuit to fool the public with cars that aren’t as clean as advertised.

Taking notice of this information, the MLIT instructed Subaru on December 22, 2017, to investigate these allegations and submit another shameful report. Care to guess what of information was unraveled? As the headline implies, an estimated 903 vehicles built by Subaru had their fuel economy and emissions data altered.

“From at least December 2012 and November 2017” is all that Subaru is willing to share with the general public, further mentioning that number of vehicles subject to sampling of fuel economy and emissions (6,939). That’s 13 percent of the vehicles that were investigated. What’s more, the number of vehicles “for which data were found in measurement equipment” is 6,530 according to the second of two reports.

These being said, what motivated Subaru to alter the data? According to the Japanese automaker, “inspectors engaging in sampling of fuel economy and emissions were instructed by their seniors (…) with the intention of reducing variance in measurement values in order to avoid questions from the Group Chiefs and the Section Chief on such variance.” Some of the Group Chiefs knew about this illegal practice. On the other hand, Subaru highlights that “managers at or above the Section Chief level and executive managers were not aware of alterations.”

To avoid such events in the coming years, Subaru decided to reform its corporate culture from the ground up. “We would like to reiterate our deepest apologies for the significant trouble and inconvenience caused to our customers, partners, and all other stakeholders,” the company said in a statement.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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