The japanese car manufacturer Nissan, together with Renault, announced on Thursday to suspend production of its vehicles destined for the japanese market in all of its plants in Japan, after noting the persistence of bad practices, certification of new vehicles.
“Nissan has decided today (Thursday) to suspend the production of vehicles for the japanese market in all the factories of Nissan and Nissan Shatai in Japan,” he said in a press release.
Put an end to the “ancient practices”
In spite of the “corrective measures” that he had been put in place since September 20, the manufacturer said it had discovered that in three of its six japanese plants, “certain parts of the procedure for the final inspection (vehicle, editor’s NOTE) were always carried out by technicians not authorized to perform these duties for vehicles for the japanese market”, according to the release.
“Can you believe that it is easy to stop to inspect people who are not supposed to do. But we need to take new measures, editor’s NOTE) to put an end to old habits,” said the group’s CEO, Hiroto Saikawa, during a press conference at the headquarters of the manufacturer in Yokohama, west of Tokyo.
The suspension of production for the japanese market is expected to last “about two weeks”, the time to take the necessary measures, he estimated.
The group intends to re-inspect 34.000 vehicles produced between September 20 and October 18 in its factories in Japan, and said “consider” to proceed with a new voluntary recall of vehicles already on the market.
Because the japanese media has revealed that this is a case of empowerment of certifications is far more serious. Thus, Nissan would have falsified certificates to conceal the fact that Nissan continues to do certification of cars by persons not authorised to do so.
The case was considered sufficiently serious for the group to re-growth for several weeks the release of its strategic plan, originally planned for 8 November.
Confidence “betrayed” customers
Because of this case, which does not regard the vehicles intended for export, Nissan had suspended at the end of September, the registrations of tens of thousands of vehicles produced before September 20, and which were still in stock in its factories.
In early October, the manufacturer had gone a little further by deciding to recall over one million vehicles already marketed in Japan and produced between October 2014 and September 2017, in order to make control of the new according to the national rules.
The cost of this first reminder should be approximately 25 billion yen (189 million euros), said Hiroto Saikawa at the beginning of October.
During its last fiscal year 2016/17, which closed at the end of march, Nissan has produced more than one million vehicles in Japan, 400,000 for the national market.
A few days of the opening of the motor show in Tokyo (Tokyo Motor Show), the persistence of this scandal is embarrassing for Nissan, and M. Saikawa, who took the reins of the group in the beginning of the year to shed a somewhat Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault, president of Mitsubishi Motors and conductor of the alliance between the three groups.
“The clients had confidence in the measures we had taken and have purchased our vehicles. We have betrayed their trust,” yet lamented Thursday Mr. Saikawa.
The quality is not questioned
Nissan, however, has repeatedly stressed that this case was only a problem of procedures, which does not call into question the quality of its vehicles.
In addition to Nissan, many japanese companies have faced various scandals in recent years, Toshiba has made up its accounts for years to Takata, whose airbags are defective have caused several deaths.
Latest scandal in the japanese archipelago, the steelmaker Kobe Steel, which was recognized this month have deliberately embellished the technical characteristics of many of its products, affecting, according to him, about 500 companies in the world.
(With AFP)
