“[President] Tetsuro Aikawa… has offered to resign from the post of president as of June 24 because the company caused serious problems for customers and stakeholders”, Mitsubishi said in a statement.
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Suzuki Motor Corp. has become the latest Japanese automaker to acknowledge problems with its fuel economy data, sources close to the matter said Wednesday.
In an interesting twist, Nissan has opted to take a 34% stake in Mitsubishi, at an obviously discounted price.
After Mitsubishi Motors Corp, another Japanese carmaker Suzuki Motor Corp has admitted that it had used improper fuel economy testing methods, as the mileage cheating scandal engulfs more automakers in Japan.
“As the outcome of our internal investigation, acts of injustice, such as manipulation of fuel efficiency data, were not found, ” Suzuki said. Maruti Suzuki’s shares pared declines of as much as 3.7 percent, their biggest intraday drop in six weeks, and were down 0.7 percent as of 1:59 p.m.in Mumbai trading after the briefing by Suzuki.
Mitsubishi is also expected to submit a report to the ministry on its testing Wednesday.
They did not give further details, but the Mainichi newspaper quoted unnamed company sources as saying that Suzuki’s testing did not result in false fuel-economy data. The good news is that vehicles sold under the Suzuki banner outside of Japan are not affected, so if you do own a Suzuki vehicle, you don’t have to worry about it.
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Emissions and fuel economy have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators globally after Volkswagen admitted past year that it used “defeat devices” on 11 million diesel vehicles to lower emissions during tests. Based on these reports, Maruti Suzuki voluntarily declares fuel efficiency of its vehicles, the spokesperson added. Mitsubishi Motors also is investigating improper testing of other models dating back to 1991.
