Mitsubishi's admission of falsifying mileage results comes on the heels of unveiling the new Mitsubishi Mirage G4 in New York.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is the latest automaker to join an ignominious, but growing, list of makers apologizing for issuing falsified fuel mileage information. The company’s senior executives outlined the problem and bowed in apology.
“The wrongdoing was intentional. It is clear the falsification was done to make the mileage look better. But why they would resort to fraud to do this is still unclear,” company president Tetsuro Aikawa told reporters, according to Associated Press.
The wrong numbers came to light after Nissan Motor Co., which partners with Mitsubishi to produce the Dayz Roox: a micro car sold in Japan, pointed out inconsistencies in the testing data. Mitsubishi launched an investigation and found evidence that employees intentionally falsified test results.
The results impacted 468,000 of the aforementioned Dayz Roox models sold under Nissan’s name and 157,000 Mitsubishi eK wagons and eK Space cars. It’s unclear if the results will affect any other vehicles in Asia or Mitsubishi vehicles in other regions.
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The two companies have stopped selling the affected vehicles for now and are investigating further to see if the problem can be tied to other vehicles.
Nissan said in a statement that it recently discovered discrepancies in data from Mitsubishi about light vehicles it provided while assessing the current model in preparation for its next-generation vehicle.
“In response to Nissan’s request, Mitsubishi admitted that data had been intentionally manipulated in its fuel economy testing process for certification,” Nissan said.
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Apparently, the engineers at Mitsubishi overinflated the tires on the vehicles as they were testing on a treadmill-like rolling road. The higher tire pressure produces a better number.
This kind of issue couldn’t come at a worse time for Mitsubishi as it is slowly rebuilding its presence in the United States. The company’s latest vehicles are getting lukewarm reviews, but they’ve not been subjected to any negative events … until now.
“This is not good news for Mitsubishi as they try to rebuild sales in the United States, but it’s important to note this is not the same issue as Volkswagen,” said Rebecca Lindland, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book.
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“However, the result is the same in that the public has been misled, and Mitsubishi will be forced to restate their fuel economy numbers. We’ll have to wait and see if any U.S. models are impacted. A broader question will be what measures – if any – the EPA takes to tighten up the testing procedures.