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Tokyo - Mitsubishi, which admitted to cheating on fuel-economy ratings, said nine more models including a sport utility vehicle may not have been properly tested as the scandal spreads beyond the initial batch of minicars.
The Japanese automaker is investigating additional current models including the RVR SUV that is sold in the US as the Outlander Sport, as well as ones that have been discontinued.
Chairperson Osamu Masuko told reporters in a briefing at Japan’s transport ministry that vehicles sold abroad are properly tested and the company expects no impact on overseas sales.
The company said it’ll separately issue a report on the additional models, without providing more details.
Orders for its vehicles in Japan have plunged after the company first revealed it had overstated the fuel economy of its minicars by as much as 10%. The Japanese government has said it will set up a task force to look into concrete measures to prevent irregularities in vehicle testing. The scandal has affected Nissan, which sold two of the minicar models under a partnership agreement.
Fuel targets
Nissan wasn’t involved in setting the fuel-economy targets for the minicars in question, Mitsubishi President Tetsuro Aikawa said at the same briefing. Mitsubishi had raised the fuel economy targets five times for the minicar models to 29.2 kilometre/litre (km/l) from 26.4 km/l in a bid to outperform the competition.
For the RVR SUV, Mitsubishi had calculated the fuel economy using data from a base model, without conducting any actual testing, the company said. The actual fuel economy of the nine models being probed didn’t differ from the stated figures, it said.
Mitsubishi has established a third-party group to investigate the falsified fuel efficiency labelling that will take about three months, the company said last month. The committee consists of three lawyers, including a former member of the Tokyo High Prosecutors Office.
The automaker, which had required a bailout from other Mitsubishi group companies more than a decade ago because it covered up deadly defects, said the supervisor in charge of the models had felt the need to boost efficiency to meet targets and mishandled the testing.
The company hasn’t sought support from Mitsubishi group companies and aims to solve the crisis on its own, Masuko said at a briefing in Tokyo. The company should be able to handle compensation with its own resources, he said.
Mitsubishi said this week that Mitsubishi's fraudulent fuel-economy testing and the subsequent plunge in its stock price and sales could cost its second-largest shareholder about ¥335bn. It also joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, in saying it can’t comment whether to extend aid to Mitsubishi.
