Just as we thought we had seen the back of the false emissions scandal, carmaker Nissan has admitted it has uncovered evidence of misconduct relating to exhaust emissions and fuel. The announcement affects 19 models sold in Japan and will lead to questions about tests for their cars around the world.
Altered measurements
The Japanese car giant revealed this week that it had found that the testing environment for both emissions and fuel economy in final vehicle inspections were not in line with the requirements. It had also found that in most of its factories in Japan, inspection reports were based on altered measurements.
The checks found that staff at four plants had altered emissions and fuel economy data for over 900 cars and over a dozen models. The checks also found problems with testing equipment being incorrectly calibrated, leading to incorrect test results.
In a recent statement, the company added that a full and comprehensive investigation of the fact, causes, and background of the misconduct is already underway. They discovered the problem during voluntary compliance checks after an improper inspection scandal last year.
Second scandal
It is the second scandal for Nissan following the problems it experienced last year. In this situation, Nissan was forced to recall 1.2 million new passenger cars sold in Japan over the previous three years because final vehicle inspections were not carried out by authorised technicians.
The company has had to recall all passenger vehicles produced in Japan between October 2014 and September 2017 including the top-selling Serena minivan and the Note hatchback. All cars then had to undergo re-inspections including the steering radius, braking, and acceleration capability. In all, the process cost the company around $222 million.
Lessons not learned
However, it seems that Nissan didn’t learn their lesson from last years’ experience. While they did put compliance checks in place to stop the process repeating, it seems others ‘less than honest’ tactics were being used.
Despite the problems, the company insists that the plants still conform to the Japanese safety standards except for the GT-R sports car. It also denies releasing bogus fuel economy figures. Nissan said that the sampling tests guarantee the catalogue specifications for fuel economy for their vehicles, so these were unaffected by the new revelation.
The Japanese Transport Ministry has told the company to investigate the problem thoroughly and to come up with measures to prevent it happening again within one month.
Costly mistakes
The latest emissions scandal comes less than a month after German authorities fined Volkswagen €1.2 billion with regards to their emissions scandal. The matter came to light some three years ago, but the repercussions from it are still raw.
Prosecutors in the city of Braunschweig fined the company £880 million saying it had failed to oversee engine development activities, leading to over 10 million vehicles with illegal emission-controlling software installed being sold around the world. The company said they hoped that paying the fine would have a ‘positive effect on other official proceedings’ going on across Europe within the company and its various subsidiaries.
Fraud and false advertising
There still looks to be a rocky time ahead for car manufacturers. Munich prosecutors have widened their probe into emissions cheating at VW group’s luxury carmakers Audi and have even included chief executive Rupert Stadler as a suspect – accused of fraud and false advertising.
Their plant in Wolfsburg, Germany is also facing a shut down for several days in the next quarter, and the company put measures into place to adapt to the rigorous new emissions tests brought in by the EU.
The company has been placed on three-year probation in the US after pleading guilty to three felony counts. The company must either buy back, or fix, 85% of the vehicles in the US that were installed with the software or face higher emissions payments. They have already spent some £5.3 billion buying back 350,000 US cars, some of which had to be destroyed.
Damaging reputations
This latest scandal for Nissan is another blow for the Japanese car market which has always had a high reputation for their quality standards and integrity. However, this is the latest in a string of admissions from Japanese companies that have manipulated quality inspections.
Some employees have blamed the pressure to cut costs and to ensure production lines are moving. Others cite the global competition and the effect it has on quality control. Unrealistic targets, relying on factor works to sort out problems, and then finding that staff have achieved aims by any means are all issues facing the industry.
As the customer, the biggest problem is this – can we trust any car manufacturer to be honest with us? And can they ever win back our trust?
Have you personally been affected by the emissions scandals in some way? How long do you think it will take to gain the trust back? Did you expect this from Nissan? Let us know below
Did anyone ever rely on the manufacturers figures ..i never have ..the only thing you can rely on is real life results..its like the statistics for “deaths caused by diesel emissions anyone or any magazine analysed them ..
What this proves is government driven insensitives in fuel economy and pollution control, DO NOT WORK.
Since the new MOT changes this year you will be hard pressed to find ANY Diesel engine cars actually passing the MOT as the test is now using the Vehicle manufacturer figures as an acceptance criteria. With the manufacturers using false claims you can see why now they are unlikely to pass the test causing people to have no choice but to scrap their three year old cars/ vans.
This is not true. I drive a VW Transporter that definitely has the infamous VW cheat software installed in it, and it passed its MOT two days ago. Your statement above states that it wouldn’t.
my 2013 diesel quashqai sailed trough the emmisions test last week
Does anybody research emissions when buying a car new or old only interest road fund
Oh dear Naughty Nissan are at it again
Simple really,Don’t buy a new vehicle, There are plenty of good second hand vehicles out there..Bargains to be had from previous years that have not been messed with…It’s only now in this economic climate that Manufacturers are struggling to survive thus resorting to underhanded measures to compete with the rest of the world who are also doing the same thing..Take a step back and stop buying new they will all learn the lesson eventually!!
The car makers should be held responsible and pay our VED then they would build better and cleaner cars, surely to fix some Diesels with the EA198 engine would be take out the cheating bit and replace the whole lot, not scrap the whole car.
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So, Nissan gets to investigate irself.
How convenient.
I registered complaints about my wife’s new 2015 Nissan Note dig s tekna in respect of fuel consumption and steering. Nothing was resolved.
Will our future vehicles be Nissan? V definitely not.
According to Which? Magazine the Nissan Note 1.2 has seriously misleading emissions claims.
Has the issue been addressed?
Not to my knowledge.
Here we go again, another cheating car maker.
just added it to the growing list of cars not to buy now or in the future.
But I do expect this of all manufacturers now a days, trust has gone.
Maybe, if the severed heads of the failed boards members are displayed outside
the HQ, new minds would be more focused on doing the more long term more profitable thing rather that the short term profitable thing.
Another Cheating car maker?
Did you actually read the article? Nissan found and published the results of the tests voluntarily.
It is not good that this has happened, but they at least seem to be trying to clean up their own act.
Are any motor manufacturers to be trusted to tell the truth about any vehicles they make or sell ???I trust not a word. Car reviews either are not to be trusted either .Backhanders. ???
Even the review sites can get it wrong. HonestJohn (The Telegraph) cited the Hyundai ix20 (KIA Venga) as having an “efficient chain cam engine”. I bought one to replace my ageing 122000 mile Vectra, and I’ve got to say that it’s a convenient small MPV.
The Hyundai has a 1.4 litre engine having the (supposed) same power output as my wife’s 2001 1.6 Astra.
The Astra and Vectra engines were designed 15 years before the Hyundai engines, but in practise they have more power and more pulling power than the Hyundai/ KIA. Moreover, these Vauxhalls have better fuel economy in real motoring and better driveability.
You just have to look at the mpg display. At 70 mph on the motorway the ix20 is doing about 43.5 mpg “on the flat”. As soon as you reach a gentle incline and compensate by pressing the accelerator a little bit more, the mpg display goes down to 20 – 25 mpg, or even down to 15 mpg if you need to change to 4th gear.
And that’s during recent hot summer weather!
(It will be worse in cold weather)
Needless to say, I’m not impressed.
I have told HonestJohn in response to their review that the ix20 is a “slug”.
Should I hope that they’ll modify the review?
What’s going on?
Did not expect this from Nissan ,Getting ripped off again ,Customer is getting ripped off again ,It’s about time the government should step in ,And do something about it,It’s called rip-off Britain
I am on my 3rd qashqai from NISSAN and I have no complaints about fuel consumption it’s diesel and it is is really good nice car too
So what cars are involved and are any in the UK?
As I scrolled down the article, I was sure I read ‘Damaging regulations’ as the last section header. Yes, I thought, too right, all this nanny-state interference amounts to damaging regulations.
The VW scandal is a massive storm in a teacup – independent testing of VW cars in the USA showed that under proper test conditions the cars would jump out of ‘cheat’ mode when they detected open-road-type throttle inputs (which are part of the emissions / economy test) and that their official measured fuel economy performance was replicable – in other words, no problem. The ‘fix’ for those cars entails making them less economical and therefore dirtier, which can hardly be a good idea if regulators are worried about pollution. Hence my thought about ‘Damaging regulations’.
As others have commented, never mind what any manufacturer says, make your own evaluations. I’ve done 140k miles over a decade in a diesel Renault Clio and actually exceeded the official average fuel economy figure, for instance. It’s not what you drive, but how you drive it – thrash a little econobox and it’ll be thirstier and dirtier than a larger car driven more carefully.
So, the companies are being fined billions of £ or Euros or whatever! Who do you think will pay this – the purchasers of new cars! Why, because there is no-one else left to pay. The shareholders will make sure that they do not pay, and the profits of the company will have a tiny wobble (as befits a company trying to wear sackcloth and ashes) and then will be up there again.
Fine the companies = tax the drivers — again!
I purchased a new Toyota Yaris hybrid October 2017 – petrol consumption is appalling- not as good as the petrol model I had previously also it struggles on hills. Is this another scandal from a Japanese car maker?