Australian vehicles unaffected by Nissan emissions scandal

The emissions scandal engulfing Nissan in Japan has no direct ties to vehicles sold in Australia, the car-maker’s local operation has confirmed.

Earlier this week, the Japanese marque admitted it had improperly measured exhaust emissions and fuel economy for 19 different models in Japan.

It was the second time in less than a year that misconduct was exposed in Nissan’s inspection processes. In October last year, Nissan conceded that uncertified inspectors had signed off cars sold in Japan “for decades” — an admission that triggered a recall of 1.2 million cars.

Nissan says it has adjusted its processes to completely eliminate any “errors” in the fuel economy figures it discloses.

“Nissan is proactively carrying out compliance checks of various aspects of its operations in Japan,” the car-maker said in a statement.

“As part of this initiative, Nissan recently discovered that certain vehicle production plants did not properly conduct exhaust gas emissions and fuel economy measurement tests within the final vehicle inspection process (kanken).

“The company implemented interim countermeasures and has confirmed that all vehicles produced, excepting GT-R, conform to Japanese safety standards and also that the Nissan vehicle-type approval average measurement values guarantee the catalog specifications for exhaust emissions.”

The Nissan incident follows previous instances of vehicle data tampering in Japan, whose manufacturing industry is traditionally squeaky-clean and well known for its efficiency and accuracy.

In May, Subaru confessed to data tampering on about 900 vehicles, and in April 2016 Mitsubishi confessed to understating the fuel economy of 625,000 mini-cars sold in Japan, leaving the company’s reputation in tatters.

The Mitsubishi scandal claimed its president and chief executive Tetsuro Aikawa, who was forced to stand down, and initially wiped 40 per cent of Mitsubishi’s market value – the equivalent of about $A4.39 billion in three days.

Ironically, the Mitsubishi scandal was initially uncovered when Nissan tested vehicles that Mitsubishi manufactures on its behalf and found discrepancies.

Even more ironically – perhaps – in October 2016 Nissan took out a controlling 34 per cent stake in Mitsubishi, making its alliance with Renault one of the world’s biggest car-makers.

Since then Nissan has set about repairing the ‘culture’ at Mitsubishi, readying a sales offensive for all three brands, preparing a range of shared models and amalgamating back-office operations, the first fruit of which was the opening of the world’s first Renault Nissan Mitsubishi parts warehouse in Melbourne this week.