The carmaker falsified the data for four models produced after June 2013 – two eK models, “Wagon” and “Space”, and the “Dayz” and “Dayz Roox” models produced for Nissan, which noticed the discrepancies.
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Mitsubishi then conducted an internal probe and found that tire pressure data was falsified to make mileage appear better than it actually was.
Transport ministry officials in Japan raided a Mitsubishi Motors office Thursday after the automaker admitted it had manipulated fuel-economy tests in about 625,000 vehicles.
The company also will conduct an investigation of fuel economy testing for vehicles manufactured for overseas markets, it said.
Nissan has already ordered its dealers to discontinue selling the affected cars and is already looking for ways on how to extend its help to owners of the affected vehicles.
The automaker said it has sold 157,000 models with misleading fuel economy ratings under its own brand and supplied another 468,000 to Nissan.
Aikawa was asked if the latest impropriety highlighted how the company had not fundamentally fixed itself after the recall scandal, although it had promised repeatedly to come clean. Mitsubishi is investigating to determine who is responsible and whether any models manufactured for other markets were effected.
Yesterday, Mitsubishi Motors shares were untraded for the whole day as they were swamped with sell orders prompted by the bad news. Mitsubishi Motors’ share price fell from ¥860 to ¥733 when the markets closed in Japan on Wednesday. The embarrassing admission comes in the wake of a massive pollution-cheating scandal at Volkswagen that erupted in September and which the German giant is still struggling to overcome. Mitsubishi, on the other hand, is expanding its investigation on the issue.
While VW and Mitsubishi are two of the most recent automakers to admit to cheating emissions and fuel efficiency laws, they’re not the first. The auto company sold a small amount of their vehicles in the United States, so they will not get a high priority as a result, he added.
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Mitsubishi Motors has admitted to rigging the fuel economy tests of 6,25,000 cars.
