Mitsubishi Motors admits manipulation of fuel economy data

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) has announced that it has provided erroneous figures pertaining to the fuel economy of four mini-cars sold in Japan.

No less than Mitsubishi Motors president, Tetsuro Aikawa, was present to apologize on behalf of the company for the way the fuel-economy testing was handled.

According to MMC, fuel testing data submitted to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) were incorrect as it showed numbers that were better than actual consumption.

This was due to the fact that MMC used a testing method that was different from the one mandated under Japanese law.

The four vehicles affected by the issue are the eK Wagon and eK Space manufactured by MMC for Mitsubishi while the other two are the Dayz and Dayz Roox manufactured by MMC for Nissan Motors Co., Limited (NML). All models are only sold in the Japanese market.

157 thousand units of the eK Wagon and eK Space have already been sold while MMC has supplied NML with 468,000 units of the Dayz and Dayz Roox already.

It was during NML's fuel testing of the Dayz and Dayz Roox for internal purposes that discrepancies regarding fuel-economy results were discovered.

NML requested MMC to check the running resistance, which is the rolling resistance of tires, and the air resistance of the vehicles in motion.

Upon Mitsubishi’s internal investigation, they found out that MMC used running resistance values that were ‘advantageous to fuel consumption rates’ and not consistent with actual fuel economy numbers.

MMC has announced that it will address inquiries and complaints from owners of the affected vehicles. MMC will also halt production and sales of affected models. Nissan has likewise stopped selling its models in question.

In light of these events, MMC will investigate models manufactured for overseas markets and also plans to set up a committee consisting of external experts to thoroughly look into the matter.

MMC plans to publish results of the investigation once it is complete.

We contacted Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation for comment, to which they indicated that as per the information released by MMC, the situation is limited to their Japanese market mini cars.