Japan is to set up a task force to look into concrete measures to prevent irregularities in vehicle testing after Mitsubishi Motors Corp admitted it falsified fuel-economy data to get better ratings for some of its models.
Mitsubishi Motors’ manipulation of fuel-efficiency tests is “extremely serious,” Japanese Minister of Transport Keiichi Ishii told reporters after a Cabinet meeting yesterday in Tokyo.
The ministry gave the automaker until today to report the findings of an internal investigation of the faked test data.
Photo: Reuters
Automakers are bracing for increased scrutiny of the way they label and advertise fuel efficiency and tailpipe pollutants after revelations in September last year that Volkswagen AG cheated on diesel emissions.
Mitsubishi Motors is scheduled to report its fiscal fourth-quarter results today.
The company is considering delaying its profit forecast for this fiscal year as it needs more time to measure the costs related to its disclosure of falsified data, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The automaker has been testing passenger cars using a method not compliant with Japanese standards since 2002, Mitsubishi president Tetsuro Aikawa said.
While the company said it is unclear whether the flawed method enhanced or reduced fuel economy, further revelations that ratings have been exaggerated might overwhelm the automaker, which has among the lowest levels of cash compared with its Japanese peers.
“Mitsubishi Motors has come a long way since past problems, so this is very disappointing,” said Shunichi Miyanaga, president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, the automaker’s largest shareholder.
Nissan Motor Co, which discovered the falsified data that led to the admission by Mitsubishi Motors, is to decide on its partnership after “all verification is done,” Nissan chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn said.
Three-quarters of the affected minicars produced by Mitsubishi Motors in the past three years were supplied to Nissan.
Fuel economy had been a selling point for Mitsubishi mini-vehicles as the company worked to overcome the residue of a 2000 recall scandal in which it admitted to overlooking fatal flaws in truck axles that could cause wheels to fly off.
The company had been Japan’s fourth-biggest automaker as of 1999.
The scandal has put Mitsubishi Motors dealers in the path of customer ire.
“We don’t know what, in particular, we should do next,” Kanto Mitsubishi Motor Sales representative Masayasu Noguchi said on Thursday last week from a dealership in central Tokyo, adding that customers are angry about the falsification and have let him know it.
“New customers are the ones who are worried the most,” Noguchi said. “We have to handle this sincerely to keep them from walking away.”
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