Mitsubishi Motors has admitted falsifying fuels economy data for about 625,000 ultrasmall vehicles sold in Japan – the latest scandal hitting the automobile industry.
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Japan’s Transport Ministry ordered Mitsubishi Motors to submit a full report on the test manipulation within a week and said it would decide on its response to that report by May 18. Japanese automakers Mitsubishi Motors has admitted that they manipulated fuel-economy data in almost 6 lakh cars.
Trading in Mitsubishi Motors’ shares halted before the close on Thursday after the shares fell almost 20.5 percent. The models are dubbed minicars, featuring small engines with great mileage. Mitsubishi Motors conducted an internal investigation and found that tire-pressure data were falsified to make mileage appear better than it actually was.
“Since the cover-up of recalls in the 2000s, we have tried to reinforce compliance within the company, but a compliance sense still hasn’t penetrated to every employee”, Mitsubishi President Tetsuro Aikawa said yesterday as he bowed in apology.
As reported by City A.M, Mitsubishi’s managing director in UK, Lance Bradley, claimed the company has acted quickly and decisively.
Pending investigation, Mitsubishi has suspended the sale and production of the four models.
The firm’s share price was down 15% following the announcement. The Mitsubishi models were the ek wagon and eK Space. The Yokohama, Japan-based auto maker said that it was also working on solutions to support affected customers.
The company also warned that the number of affected cars could rise in the coming week.
“In addition to the costs of the scandal, the secondary effects on worldwide sales could be very large”, Kishimoto wrote in a client note, adding the automaker has tied its brand to environmentally friendly technology with its fuel-sipping, plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles.
The problem was found after Nissan pointed out inconsistencies in data, the company said. Nissan said it is considering ways to help the owners of cars already sold.
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Prior to that in 2014, South Korea’s Hyundai and Kia agreed to pay tens of millions of dollars in fine to settle a litigation in the United States, again for exaggerating the fuel efficiency on its cars sold in 2012 and 2013.
