diff --git a/test.py b/test.py
index 91a33b4..66bb085 100755
--- a/test.py
+++ b/test.py
@@ -296,9 +296,11 @@ def timeSeconds(f):
 
 fmisimulatorversion = None
 if fmisimulator:
-  flag = '-v' if not isFMPy(fmisimulator) else  '--version'
   try:
-      fmisimulatorversion = check_output_log([fmisimulator, flag], stderr=subprocess.STDOUT).strip()
+    if not isFMPy(fmisimulator):
+      fmisimulatorversion = check_output_log([fmisimulator, "-v"], stderr=subprocess.STDOUT).strip()
+    else:
+      fmisimulatorversion = subprocess.getoutput(fmisimulator + " --version" ).strip().encode('ascii')
   except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
     print("Failure to run %s:\n%s" %(fmisimulator, e.output))
     raise e