Furthermore, Mitsubishi has also admitted that there are more cars with higher fuel consumption figures, without providing additional info about them.
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It said it would set up an external committee to investigate the matter and report the results in three months. “I can not say sorry however assist”. Since the admission last week, the company has lost half of its market value, roughly $3.9 billion.
He also denied Japanese media reports that he and the company’s CEO Osamu Masuko plan to resign and take responsibility for the scandal.
Mileage fraud is a violation of Japan’s fuel efficiency law for cars because buyers are eligible for tax breaks if a vehicle model delivers good mileage.
Another executive, Koji Yokomaku, said the company raised its fuel economy targets five times in two years while developing the mini-vehicles, to 29.2 kilometers per liter from an initial 26.4.
The inaccurate mileage tests revealed last week involved 157,000 of its eK wagon and eK Space, and 468,000 Dayz and Dayz Roox vehicles produced for Nissan.
Mitsubishi claims that cars with inflated fuel efficiency ratings were sold only in Japan.
What is more concerning is Mitsubishi Motors have been testing passenger cars using a method not compliant with Japanese standards since 2002, according to Aikawa.
Keiichi Ishii, Japan’s transport minister, told reporters in Tokyo that manipulating fuel economy data is “extremely serious” and that a government taskforce would look at ways to prevent manipulation in future.
German carmaker Volkswagen said last Friday the engine-rigging scandal it is now engulfed in pushed it into its first annual loss in more than 20 years, and the final costs are still not calculable. Aikawa said he was unaware of the issues until Nissan brought it up.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board are probing whether models sold in the U.S. meet fuel-economy regulations, EPA spokeswoman Julia Valentine said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday in Washington.
