It said the affected models were its own-brand eK Wagon and eK Space cars, and Dayz and Dayz Roox vehicles produced for Nissan Motor. Over 600,000 vehicles were affected by Mitsubishi’s impropriety, including 157,000 it sold direct to consumers and another 468,000 it supplied to Nissan from June 2013 to March 2016.
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The Japanese automaker said it deliberately fudged the fuel efficiency numbers in its favour by margins of roughly ten percent.
Some 22,693 new Mitsubishi cars were sold in the United Kingdom previous year, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
Mitsubishi Motors President Tetsuro Aikawa on Wednesday admitted employees had exaggerated the fuel efficiency of 625,000 “mini-cars’ by between 5-10%”.
While he said he is unaware of the irregularities, he said he feels responsible for the issue. Since the announcement, the company’s shares have decreased by 15%, losing $1.2 billion in its overall market value with expectations that shares are going to decrease even more and the company is going to lose more money. Mitsubishi has also set up a panel to investigate the issue.
Mini-cars, or kei-cars, are small vehicles with 660cc gasoline engines that are hugely popular in the Japanese market, although they have found little success overseas.
The company has been no stranger to scandal in the past.
Following the admission, officials from Japan’s transport ministry raided a Mitsubishi Motors research and development centre in the city of Nagoya this morning.
The embarrassing revelation 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.
Lance Bradley, UK managing director, assured customers that only Japanese-market cars were confirmed to have cheated on emissions tests. It was Japan’s worst automotive recall scandal at the time.
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South Korean auto makers Hyundai Motor Co and affiliate Kia Motors Corp in 2014 agreed to pay $350 million in penalties to the US government for overstating their vehicles’ fuel economy ratings.
