Subaru misses a deadline to report on its own internal investigation into alleged fuel economy cheating on some models in Japan.
Here in the U.S., Subaru markets their cars on the slogan, “Love. It’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru.” In Japan, however, the atmosphere might be a bit less rosy, as back in December, the automaker issued a statement that they were looking into possible fuel economy falsification. The issue stems from manufacturing in Subaru’s Gunma plant in Japan. According to Japanese broadcaster NHK, Subaru was altering its fuel economy figures on a regular basis. Inspection workers at the plant were submitting figures to the Japanese Transport Ministry that were different from Subaru’s own in-house numbers.
Subaru released a statement in December that neither confirmed nor denied the allegations, stating they were looking into the matter. The company had until the end of March to submit their findings. As of this moment, the Transport Ministry hasn’t received that report, so they missed their deadline. According to the company’s statement, since republished by Torque News:
“Through examination by the above external experts, we received a report from the finished inspector from the completed inspector that a remark was confirmed that there was an act of changing the measurement value in a certain period of commencement of mass production of some models when measuring the fuel consumption which is part of the sampling inspection process.”
How many models affected unknown at this time
Subaru hasn’t clarified yet exactly how many models the problem affects, or whether it affects models outside Japan. Hundreds of examples of models like the Forester, Crosstrek, WRX and BRZ could be involved in the issue. Subaru’s stock fell three percent as a result of the news. As of Friday, April 20, it doesn’t appear to have rebounded much.
We also don’t know at this time whether Subaru inspectors falsified fuel economy numbers on models bound for global markets, like the U.S. Stay tuned to TFLcar.com for more updates!
