These last couple of years has seen a huge number of scandals in the car industry. But if you thought dieselgate and Takata were huge, there’s something worse on the horizon.
Reports are beginning to surface that Japan’s 3rd largest steel supplier, Kobe Steel, has been falsifying data on the strength of the materials they supply. Details are unclear at this point, but the materials include steel wire, aluminium and copper.
What we know is that the company used falsified data when supplying these materials to automakers, train coachmakers, tyre manufacturers, hard drives producers… the list goes on. This is particularly scary for carmakers, as body panels, engine blocks, tyres or even entire chassis units could be compromised.
As car companies rush to identify which products are affected, we can only wonder what the solution will be. Will there be buybacks? Monetary compensation? Whatever the case, it’s clear from Kobe Steel’s plummeting stock prices that that supplier’s future is bleak.
