At that time, it had said no other models were affected.
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Mitsubishi said it would pay compensation of up to 100,000 yen ($977) each to roughly 76,000 owners in Japan.
The ministry’s order comes four months after Japan’s sixth-biggest automaker by volume admitted it manipulated data to make four of its minicar models, including two supplied to Nissan Motor Co., look more efficient than they actually were.
A press conference was called just hours after the Japanese transport ministry found that Mitsubishi had overstated mileage on eight of its vehicles, including the Pajero and Outlander.
“Our investigation confirmed that the fuel economy on eight models were as much as 8.8% and on average 4.2% lower than advertised”, the transport ministry said in a statement.
It ordered the automaker to stop selling those eight models while it submits correct readings, a process the ministry expected would take a few weeks. The admission led to a suspension of sales of the four models for almost three months, and prompted a slump in Mitsubishi’s market value.
With Mitsubishi Motors admitting that it falsified the fuel economy in the models, the ministry has conducted an independent investigation to gauge the gap between actual figures and those in the catalogue.
The scandal prompted Mitsubishi to seek financial help from Nissan Motors, which agreed to acquire a controlling one-third stake in the company. Compensation to customers was a possibility, it added.
Sales of the four models were temporarily suspended, and resumed in July.
An internal investigation found that Mitsubishi had been guilty of poor corporate communications, slack governance, and pressuring engineers to perform with limited resources. In April, the company admitted to using unapproved mileage calculation methods for around 25 years.
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Mitsubishi’s vehicle sales in Japan has nose-dived, falling 35 percent last month compared to the same month previous year.
