The company and Nissan have stopped production of the cars and Mitsubishi would speak about the compensation with Nissan.
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The calculation involved the way Mitsubishi calculated the affect of wind and tire resistance on the vehicle during simulations.
“The wrongdoing was intentional”.
Mitsubishi’s shares plunged 15 percent in the Japanese stock market following the announcement, putting its market value at $6.6 billion.
The automaker said it has sold 157,000 models with misleading fuel economy ratings under its own brand and supplied another 468,000 to Nissan. Mitsubishi was producing vehicles for its fellow Japanese manufacturer and it was Nissan that uncovered the problem.
An investigation will be conducted to see whether other vehicles were rigged for overseas markets.
Mitsubishi president, Tetsuro Aikawa, said the details of the test data came to light after Nissan became aware of its own figures.
Mitsubishi Motors has admitted to manipulating fuel economy tests in Japan, but says models sold in the United Kingdom and Europe are not affected. Other company executives bowed in apology as well.
Mitsubishi plans to launch an external committee to investigate what happened.
Aikawa said that although he was unaware the irregularities were happening, “I feel responsible”. “We will inform our customers. But why they would resort to fraud to do this is still unclear”, Mr Aikawa said.
After consulting Japan’s transport ministry, Nissan ordered dealers to stop selling the affected vehicles, and it’s looking for ways to help owners of the cars that have been already sold.
According to Mitsubishi, as reported in the article, fuel economy was incorrectly boosted by approximately five percent or 10 percent on the affected models, which were billed as getting 71.5 miles per gallon (30.4 kilometers per liter).
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Joe Rundle, a senior officer at United Kingdom trading company ETX Capital, said the revelation from Mitsubishi “calls into question whether we have a much larger industry-wide scandal on our hands”.
