A storm is brewing over claims that Suzuki skirted Japanese regulations around some of its fuel economy tests, using imported data from wind tunnel tests to complete tests that it is legally obligated to run outside.
The company, which had already admitted to that it had collected tunnel data, denies using it to augment results.
Japanese regulations require manufacturers to use a method known as a ‘coasting test’ to gather data on rolling and air resistance.
The company said that it used coasting test protocols on all its models, but that its data was unusable, having been ‘significantly influenced’ by weather conditions.
It denies padding the results with externally-gathered data, but Japan Times sources have questioned that, alleging that the ‘indoor data’ was used to calculate economy instead.
Suzuki has until the end of the month to provide Japan’s transport ministry with full disclosure of the testing methodology that it used.
Accusations that Suzuki had used test trickery surfaced shortly after the news of Mitsubishi’s data-fiddling over fuel economy had been confirmed.
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