Not only has the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered the brand to hand over additional information on U.S. fuel economy testing and to retest the fuel efficiency of its American cars, a report from Automotive News Europe claims that Mitsubishi’s two top executives, the CEO and COO, are going to resign.
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The four mini vehicle models – eK wagon and eK Space, and Dayz and Dayz Roox – were created by Mitsubishi for Nissan.
An SMMT spokesman said: “It is disappointing news but we need to be absolutely clear that this is an issue involving cars made, tested and sold in Japan – auto buyers and owners here in the United Kingdom are not affected”.
The head of crisis-hit Mitsubishi Motors said Wednesday that sales in Japan have fallen off a cliff since the company admitted last week that it has been cheating on fuel-efficiency tests.
He said: “I was totally unaware this was happening”.
Last week, Mitsubishi first admitted it was using the improper testing, and that unnamed employees manipulated data to make some of its cars seem more fuel-efficient than they were in reality. The automaker also said that it compiled data for fuel economy tests using U.S standards, where highway driving forms a bulk of the commute.
The misconduct has left many thinking of another scandal where more than 15 years ago Mitsubishi Motors was found to have been systematically covering up customer complaints for over two decades.
They were produced from March 2013, and the problem surfaced after Nissan pointed out inconsistencies in data. Possible penalties are still unclear due to the uncertainties over the investigation’s outcome, according to the transport ministry.
MMC said it is still investigating the total number of vehicles involved in the scandal.
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An agency spokeswoman said the EPA has “instructed Mitsubishi to provide additional information” regarding vehicles sold in the U.S. “The agency will also be directing the company to conduct additional… testing for vehicles”, she said. That resulted in more than a million vehicles being recalled retroactively.
