Mitsubishi Motors has admitted that it manipulated fuel economy data for about 620,000 Japan-market vehicles.
Mitsubishi has halted sales and production of the affected cars, which include Mitsubishi’s eK Wagon and eK Space along with 468,000 units of the Dayz and Dayz Roox that it built for Nissan Motor. All of these are mini-cars, built from June 2013.
A probe into other Mitsubishi models, including vehicles in the U.S., is now being launched to see if the cheating is more widespread.
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The discrepancy in emissions was discovered by Nissan engineers during testing, who then approached Mitsubishi with what they had found. “In response to Nissan’s request, Mitsubishi admitted that data had been intentionally manipulated in its fuel economy testing process,” says a statement from Nissan.
President of Mitsubishi Tetsuro Aikawa said that his company “conducted testing improperly to present better fuel consumption rates than the actual rates,” and he added that “the testing method was also different from the one required by Japanese law.”
“We express deep apologies to all of our customers and stakeholders for this issue,” said Aikawa.
After Mitsubishi president Tetsuro Aikawa made the announcement, shares in Mitsubishi Motors Corp fell by 15 percent, knocking about $1.2 billion from the brand’s market value.
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