Now Mitsubishi admits to faking fuel economy tests on 600,000 vehicles

Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi Motors has admitted manipulating fuel economy emissions tests on some of its own brand and Nissan cars. The company spoke up after initial reports vehicles had failed testing sparked the biggest one day fall in its share price for 12 years - losing 15%, or $1.2bn (£835m), of its market value by the close of trading. Mitsubishi confirmed there was evidence to suggest employees falsified emissions test data for several models, involving 157,000 of its own brand light passenger cars and 468,000 vehicles produced for Nissan. The news comes in the wake of the VW emissions scandal which affected millions of vehicles worldwide.

This may be different from Volkswagen’s issue, but the market has become very sensitive to such kind of news.

Seiji Sugiura, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Center, tells Bloomberg

Company bosses, including Mitsubishi Motors president Tetsuro Aikawa, bowed deeply at the start of a media briefing in Tokyo. He said the misconduct was reported to Japan’s transportation ministry. It is understood the bulk of the vehicles affected were sold in the domestic Japanese market and further details were being given at a news conference in Tokyo. President Tetsuro has told reporters the wrongdoing came to light because Nissan alerted it to inconsistencies in emissions data. He said Mitsubishi’s internal probe uncovered the manipulation by staff.