Your Maruti kitna deti hai?
Three years ago, India’s most prolific car maker Maruti Suzuki ran a series of TV commercials with “Kitna Deti Hai? (How much does she give?)” as the punchline. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), like its parent Japanese auto giant Suzuki Motor Corporation, took great pride in the fuel efficiency of its range of cars, sedans and vans.
Now, in the light of the Mileage Scandal enveloping Suzuki and Mitsubishi in Japan, the question in the minds of every Maruti customer in India, is ‘How much does my car really give?’
Three months ago, Suzuki Motor Corporation president Toshihiro Suzuki spoke in Delhi about his company’s desire to focus on improving the fuel efficiency of Maruti Suzuki’s petrol and diesel engines.
But Toshihiro Suzuki would not have imagined that his company would soon be engulfed in a crisis fuelled by some of his own personnel.
The Mileage Scandal has claimed not a few victims in Suzuki, including its patriarch CEO Osamu Suzuki, in the wake of raids by Japanese government investigators earlier this month who found that the Japanese carmaker tested its cars in indoor conditions rather than out in the open.
In the wake of the Mileage Scandal in Japan, Suzuki has admitted that discrepancies were found in the automobile emission and fuel efficiency testing process mandated by the Japanese government and the method carried out by Suzuki.
Maruti Suzuki India Limited is one of Suzuki’s largest joint ventures. The Indian subsidiary, like its Japanese parent, boasts of enhanced fuel efficiency in cars that roll out of its facilities at the rate of one car per 12 seconds.
Doubts have been stoked in India since Maruti Suzuki was known to send 30-40 cars to the Suzuki test track in Japan. MSIL’s own R&D centre in Rohtak started functioning only last year, but industry sources say this centre is MSIL’s main hub now. It is not immediately clear if the facility’s emission testing unit is functional yet. Efforts to verify that with MSIL were in vain.
Suzuki Motor Corporation was quick to address concerns regarding cars made by its subsidiaries overseas. The issues do not apply to products sold under the Suzuki badge outside Japan, it said in a press release.
Asked about mileage concerns relating to Suzuki’s Indian cars, an MSIL spokesperson pointed out that the system of conducting vehicle mileage tests in India is different from the one in Japan.
“In India, all vehicles are tested for road load and emissions by government-approved agencies. As part of the emissions test, these agencies report fuel efficiency of vehicles as well,” the spokesperson said.
In India, emission and fuel efficiency testing is done not by automobile manufacturers but by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI). The International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) and Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (VRDE) are the other organisations that do similar work.
Yet, the question remains: Do automobile makers in India advertise the right fuel efficiency? Does the Swift, for instance, give the 18.6 km per litre of petrol (as shown on the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers website)? Or does the Dzire offer its users 19.1 kmpl? Does your car have the fuel efficiency that is advertised?
Indeed, there is a flip side to the fuel efficiency story in India. The emission tests, which double up as fuel efficiency tests, are conducted in a controlled environment. Typically, cars are ‘driven’ on a treadmill like structure for 10 km in 19 minutes – translating to 31.57 kmph. There is no idling, no stopping and starting frequently as we do on our roads. And the temperature in the laboratory is controlled too.
It can only be concluded that the fuel efficiency advertised and the one obtained on the road cannot be the same. Some tests have shown that the on-road fuel efficiency may be around 70 per cent of the results obtained in ARAI and advertised by all automobile makers.
However, instead of blaming the manufacturers for misleading advertising, India needs to persuade government-approved organisations to enhance testing that will reflect fuel efficiency in real traffic conditions. Until then, the Indian Driving Cycle, as the fuel emission and efficiency test is called, will allow only a fair comparison of cars – between brands and models – as all are tested in the same environment.