Thursday, 21 April 2016

Mitsubishi Admits Manipulating Fuel-Economy Data

Tokyo: Mitsubishi Motors, Japan’s sixth largest automaker has admitted and apologized for falsifying fuel economy test data in more than 600,000 vehicles.

The company said that it manipulated the fuel economy test data to make emissions levels look more favorable. Tetsuro Aikawa, President of Japan’s sixth-largest car maker by market value, bowed in apology at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday for what is the biggest scandal at Mitsubishi Motors since a defect cover-up more than a decade ago.
“We express deep apologies to all of our customers and stakeholders for this issue,” Aikawa said in a news conference on Wednesday, bowing deeply. “I feel the difficulty of ensuring thorough awareness about compliance among all employees,” he further said.
The fuel-economy and testing problems likely will hurt Mitsubishi’s profit Aikawa said. Its earnings had been rising amid robust global auto demand. The company is reviewing whether any cars sold outside Japan are affected.
The company said the test manipulation involved 625,000 vehicles produced since mid-2013. These include its eK mini-wagon as well as 468,000 similar cars it made for Nissan Motor. The problem was found after Nissan pointed out inconsistencies in data, the company said.
Mitsubishi conducted an internal investigation and found that the tyre pressure data was falsified to make mileage appear better than it actually was. 
Mitsubishi Motors is the first Japanese car maker to report misconduct involving fuel economy tests since Volkswagen was discovered last year to have cheated in diesel emissions tests in the United States and elsewhere.




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