On the last working day before the May 1st Festival, Japanese automaker Subaru Co., Ltd. (SUBARU:7270.T, hereinafter referred to as Subaru) publicly disclosed its internal inspection report. The report shows that Subaru employees tampered with data in terms of fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.

From the “Quality Inspection Gate” in October 2017, only half a year, Subaru retransmitted the scandal. In response to the problem of data modification and post-crisis trust reconstruction, the “China Business” reporter called and sent a letter to the relevant person in charge of Subaru (China). However, as of the press release, he had not received a response.

According to public information, Subaru, a subsidiary of Fuji Heavy Industries, Ltd., was established in 1953 and is mainly engaged in the production and sales of automobiles, as well as some aircraft and engine manufacturing businesses. Subaru ranks sixth among Japanese automakers, and Toyota Motor owns part of the company.

Since 2017, the Japanese manufacturing industry has seen negative news on Takata Air Bags filed for bankruptcy protection, Kobe Steel fraud, Nissan, and Subaru quality inspection problems. Due to the continuous appearance of the above news, “Made in Japan”, which has been known for its high quality, has gradually begun to develop. Go down the "Altar."

Admit fake

According to the inspection report disclosed by the Subaru headquarters website (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), the company tested a total of 6,939 vehicles produced in the period from December 2012 to November 2017, and the results showed that 903 of them were fuel The consumption rate and fuel emissions data were tampered with. It was tampered with nine vehicles including Forester, Impreza, "EXIGA", "WRX" and Toyota "86".

According to its internal review, the company’s staff involved stated that the history of falsifying data can be traced back to 2002 at the earliest. The falsification work was completed under the instruction of the squad leader in charge of the work. The relevant personnel had reached some "tacit understanding" on certain aspects and "passed on from generation to generation" in the "master took apprenticeship." For the falsification work, the management of the headmaster or above is not known.

The report also showed that employees tampered with data in order to achieve the relevant data to achieve the optimal standards, data changes are not significant, the product's standards meet the company's quality management standards, and therefore will not be recalled for this tampered vehicle.

"Exhaust emissions are not considered technically difficult. In order to achieve high emissions standards, the vehicle's power system will be weakened and manufacturing costs will increase, so they tend to take some simplification measures." Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the passenger car market joint conference, said in an interview with reporters. In his view, Subaru's illegal data modification and the 2015 VW "emission gate" are different in nature and will not harm the core product quality.

In fact, the company's "self-examination" is based on the "quality inspection door" six months ago. In October 2017, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. was bombarded with unqualified quality inspectors throughout the year for inspection of the safety of the entire vehicle. After the incident, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan required major automakers in Japan to carry out internal investigations. Subaru also discovered in the process. Similar problems. It is understood that this operation lasted for 30 years in the factories involved, and Subaru recalled 255,000 cars for this purpose.

In addition, in December 2017, according to Reuters and other media reports, Subaru Motors or the existence of data mileage fraud, the official Subaru denied this, and immediately reported to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (local regulatory authorities), launched the internal Self-check.

On April 27th, 2018, Subaru held a press conference in Tokyo to disclose the findings of the investigation. The responsible person stated that the data was altered because the grassroots employees lacked attention to public interest and regulatory awareness. In the future, the company will strengthen rules and education and optimize internal review. Processes, refinement of inspection laws and regulations, and enhancement of communication between levels are being rectified.

President of Subaru Ji Yongtai publicly apologized and stated that the non-compliance of employees is an extremely serious problem. The management and company colleagues will seriously reflect and prevent such problems from happening again.

In China, it tends to be "颓"

At the end of April, Subaru (China) filed a recall plan with the State General Administration of Customs. Since May 9, it has recalled some of the 144 vehicles of the Legacy, Outback, Impreza series from 2013 to 2014. It is understood that this batch of models is mainly installed Takada airbags with frequent problems.

Subaru has been selling in China as a pure import, but the market performance is not dazzling. “In the Chinese market, consumers prefer German cars, and the market share of Japanese cars is relatively small,” said Li Yanwei, member of the expert group of the China Automobile Dealers Association. According to his analysis, Subaru's product strength is much worse than that of Toyota and Honda, both of which belong to the Japanese system. Their performance in the Chinese market is relatively poor. In terms of specific models, Subaru's best-selling SUV model is the Forester series. However, with the entry of joint venture brands in such models, Subaru, a relatively high-priced importer, gradually lost its advantage.

In 2004, Subaru entered China. It was subject to the requirement that foreign companies not establish sales channels in China. Subaru's sales in China were bound to large distributor groups. According to Li Yanwei, after the implementation of the "Automotive Sales Management Measures" in 2005, the general agent was required to be responsible for the quality of the products it sold, and it was actually acquiesced that foreign companies set up sales companies in China. At that time, Subaru's scale was relatively small, and it did not immediately build its own sales channels. North and the giant group, South and Sunami, the middle and SAIC Anji formed a sales pattern of "three points of the world". The latter two channels are also late. Incorporates a large group.

In 2010, Subaru was once expected to establish a joint venture with Chery in Dalian. After the latter’s joint venture with Jaguar Land Rover in 2012, the cooperation rumors between the two were gone. Subsequently, it was rumored that it wanted to establish a joint venture with BAIC and SAIC. "Subaru missed the opportunity of the joint venture, when he wanted to join the joint venture did not find a good partner, then the country began to control the approval." Cui Dongshu said.

In Cui Dongshu's opinion, Subaru is not deterring the Chinese market, but Japanese car manufacturers believe that pure import can not only guarantee greater profitability, but also protect their own technology and brand. "This is similar to Lexus's thinking. The current sales situation is also related to its lack of domestic production. There is no problem with the product itself."

In 2011, Subaru's sales reached 57,000 units, becoming its historical peak so far, and it has declined for many years since then. In 2017, Subaru's sales in China were 31,000, a decrease of 34% year-on-year.

Go down the "Altar"

Japan’s manufacturing has always been known for its sophisticated, safe, and high-quality image, but the recent Japanese manufacturing scandals have begun to crack the “perfect person”.

In 2014, many airbag deaths caused the United States and other countries to begin investigating airbag safety. In February 2017, Takata, which had more than half of the global airbag market, publicly admitted that its products were unqualified and had tampered with safety data for the past 10 years.

In October 2017, Japan's Kobe Steel was falsified with data. According to the Japanese official survey, Kobe Steel falsified some of the heavy metal product quality data of its 23 factories around the world, affecting 688 companies including several well-known car companies, involving aircraft manufacturing, Shinkansen and automobile manufacturing industries.

In addition to these two giants, in the second half of last year, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Suzuki were also exposed to issues such as the use of unqualified employee security checks, and changes in fuel consumption data. Toray Industries, one of the world's top 500 companies, has publicly admitted that it has tampered with quality data such as reinforcing agents for automotive tires.

Nissho Kozawa, a corporation of Japan’s Coney Management Consulting, publicly stated that the Japanese scandal was that it did not promote the upgrading of corporate business strategies and profit models. It only focused on management goals, and forced some front-line employees who were unable to meet the standards to take risks.

Several well-known macroeconomic experts and financial scholars in China also wrote that the Japanese manufacturing industry is good at “conservation” and “learning”, and lacks “leading” and “innovation”. Historically, opportunities for development have been missed in many areas such as mobile phones and computers. In terms of the automotive sector, Japanese cars also have a disadvantage in the Chinese market competition compared to German cars.