Uh-oh, that’s a bit dishonourable isn’t it? Mitsubishi Motors have admitted to cheating in fuel tests conducted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Japan.
Mitsubishi cheated in the fuel tests by “over inflating tyre pressures” to have “favourable” results in the consumption tests. Mitsubishi says the fuel economy of the cars affected were 10% lower than stated.
“No cars sold in New Zealand are affected” said Daniel Cook, Head of Mitsubishi NZ’s Sales and Marketing. “An investigation conducted by a third party is underway” said Cook. The cars affected are Japanese domestic kei cars.
625,000 have been affected by the scandal. 157,000 are Mitsubishi cars such as the eK mini-wagon. On top of the Mitsubishi cars, 468,000 Nissan kei models manufactured by Mitsubishi have also been affected. Models include the Dayz and Dayz Roox.
Mitsubishi have taken the cars affected off the market. Shares in Mitsubishi dropped over 15 percent, the largest drop in almost 12 years.
In a press conference Tetsuro Aikawa, president of Mitsubishi Motors, gave a bowed apology. “We’d like to apologise of the issue.” Aikawa said. Adding, “The focus right now is to resolve this problem and prevent it from happening again … it could be quite damaging.”
Aikawa claims he did not know about the cheating until an investigation was launched in the aftermath of the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
Mitsubishi aren’t the first company to have been caught cheating fuel tests. Hyundai and Kia had to pay a $350 million fine to the United States government in 2014 for falsely overstating their cars’ fuel economy ratings.
With Mitsubishi’s cover up of defects from over a decade ago, including covering problems of faulty fuel tanks, clutches, and brakes, still fresh in the memory of some, this scandal could have major implications to the reputation of the three-diamond brand. Not to mention some people are still sore from the discontinuation of the Evo.