Nissan Confesses to Falsified Testing Data for Japanese Vehicles

After Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal came under public scrutiny, numerous industry analysts prophesied it would not be an isolated incident. Cheating had been done in the past, and would likely continue into the future. In fact, numerous experts claimed every major automotive manufacturer probably engaged in illicit behavior to some degree. With so many laws and employees who may be interested in shirking them, it’s bound to happen time and time again.

On Monday, Nissan Motor Co. admitted it improperly measured exhaust emissions and fuel economy for 19 vehicle models sold in Japan. Late last year, Nissan and Subaru both confessed that they had allowed uncertified technicians to conduct finial vehicle inspections. Initially, the issue seemed like a harmless oversight, but in some cases the failing went unnoticed for decades, resulting in falsified data as a way to cut corners. Both Mitsubishi Motors and Suzuki admitted in 2016 that they exaggerated the fuel economy of their vehicles by cheating on tests.

While Germany is currently the nation under the most scrutiny for underhanded automotive action, Japan is no stranger to industrial misdeeds. However, before we start licking the rest of the industry’s boots, let’s remind ourselves that practically every large automaker has been accused of (or caught) breaking the rules over the past decade.

Tampering has simply become a bigger issue in Japan than initially believed, tarnishing the region’s rather enviable reputation. According to Reuters, Nissan said it found that sample test environments for emissions and fuel economy in final vehicle inspections at most of its factories in Japan were not in line with domestic standards.

“This is a deep and serious issue for our company,” COO Yasuhiro Yamauchi told reporters in a meeting. “We realize that our compliance awareness remains lacking.”

Nissan intends to conduct an internal investigation to determine the cause, which it expects will take at least a month to compete. It’s highly similar to the rhetoric following the realization that it failed to adhere to the proper final inspection process, ultimately leading to the recall of 1.2 million vehicles.

It was the earlier investigation that led to the realization that vehicle information had been fabricated. During voluntary compliance checks, roughly 2,200 sample tests performed at six plants producing Nissan vehicles yielded 1,200 examples of falsified data at five locations — which makes for a pretty horrendous scorecard.

The company previously noted that final inspections had overstated mileage data. While this was initially presumed to be a way to streamline the process or the result of laziness, it was later suspected that supervisors pressured some employees to make fuel economy estimates appear more favorable.

Nissan later discovered incidents where vehicle driving speeds and durations, along with external temperatures, were not in line with Japanese emissions testing regulations. Likewise, the applicable testing equipment had not been properly calibrated. While this doesn’t guarantee intentional tampering, it is highly suspicious when compounded.

Based on the information presently available, the tampering incidents date back to 2013 and are claimed to involve only 10 Nissan employees. But Yamauchi said it was entirely possible that older data may reveal the problem goes back further.

The automaker has been very careful to point out that these issues do not affect automobiles manufactured outside of Japan, nor do they impact vehicle safety — something we’re inclined to believe. While Japan mandates that final inspection procedures be the domain of officially sanctioned experts, other regions are not subjected to it. Still, it represents a significant failing at Nissan.

Cutting corners is just bad practice, regardless of the company or product, as it can allow difficult-to-spot faults to slip through unnoticed. Perhaps something like an airbag inflator that’s reliant on unstable chemicals and ultimately proves extremely dangerous to customers. While that’s a less pertinent example, every time an automaker is caught bungling something, you begin to wonder where else mistakes may have been made.