Osamu Suzuki steps down as Suzuki CEO

Suzuki Motor Corporation CEO resigns from his position in the backdrop of the fuel efficiency mismeasurement scandal which has found 26 of its models to be affected by it.

One of the longest serving leaders of the automobile industry, Osamu Suzuki – CEO of Suzuki Motor Corporation has announced that he will be stepping down from the his position as CEO in the backdrop of the fuel efficiency mismeasurement scandal that has tainted the company name. 86 year old Osamu Suzuki who has been heading operations since 1978 will however remain as chairman in Suzuki Motor Corporation to prevent the recurrence of such a situation in future. Mr. Suzuki will give up his title as CEO later this month at a shareholder meeting.

Along with Mr. Suzuki Company Executive Vice President, Osamu Honda has also stepped down to take accountability for the fuel efficiency smudging scandal. He also announced cuts in executive compensation. Osamu Suzuki will take a 40 per cent salary cut while his son who will succeed him in future will take a 30 per cent salary cut, for the next six months.

Mr. Suzuki is not the only person to go down this road recently as Mitsubishi Motors Corporation’s President, Tetsuro Aikawa will also be resigning due to manipulation of fuel efficiency test data which has been used on some models for the past 25 years.

Recently, the number of Suzuki cars affected by the scandal has gone up from 16 to 26, reportedly around 2.14 million vehicles sold in Japan have been affected.

Suzuki Motor Corporation has been found guilty of using a fuel efficiency test method that is not approved by the Japanese regulators. The method used by Suzuki tested individual vehicle components to estimate driving-resistance without conducting actual coasting tests.

However, Mr. Suzuki has stated on record that results from tests conducted using an approved method did not result in any significant difference in fuel efficiency.

Also read: Mitsubishi admits rigging fuel economy figures in Japan