The automaker has set up a panel of three lawyers to investigate the matter, and expect a report in 3 months.
Advertisement
Mitsubishi said last week that the fuel efficiency of 625,000 of its vehicles had been exaggerated by up to 10 percent. About three-quarters of those are supplied to Nissan Motor Co. and sold under the Nissan brand.
On 26 April, Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motor Corporations revealed it had been using the wrong fuel economy tests for its Kei cars – small 0.6L vehicles made for the Japanese domestic market. The company said last week it hadn’t been complying with Japanese testing standards since 2002.
Company president, Tetsuro Aikawa, previously acknowledged that all this is going to hamper the vehicle manufacturer’s finances, adding: “I can only apologise”.
Mitsubishi has admitted that its Japan fuel-economy misconduct dates back to 1991. The stock has now plunged about 50 per cent since the first admission on Wednesday, wiping billions off the company’s value. The outcome of the scandal was devastating, because Mitsubishi had to recall 163,707 cars around the world and repairing them for free.
The carmaker has said it compiled data for fuel economy tests using USA standards, where higher-speed, highway driving is common, rather than Japanese standards, where more prevalent city driving commonly consumes more fuel. In more recent years, workers also selected “a relatively low value” from among the resistance tests, further inflating fuel-efficiency figures.
The mini-cars affected include four models which were sold only in Japan.
Mitsubishi had repeatedly promised to come clean after a massive scandal 15 years ago involving a systematic cover-up of auto defects.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has instructed Mitsubishi to submit additional information regarding vehicles it sells in the U.S., a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Advertisement
Mitsubishi Motors may have to pay back government tax rebates its minicars shouldn’t have been eligible for, Nakao said last week. Aikawa said he was unaware of the issues until Nissan brought it up.
