Mitsubishi Motors shares have dropped by fifteen per cent, erasing over £800 from its market value, after admitting that it has falsified fuel economy data for more than 600,000 vehicles sold in Japan, following the discovery of similar methods used by Volkwagen uncovered last year.
The company has announced that flatter mileage rates were achieved by employees altering tyre pressure figures.
Approximately 470,000 vehicles built for Nissan were affected and the issue was uncovered after Nissan found inconsistencies in the Mitsubishi-manufactured models.
On Wednesday, shares in Mitsubishi Motors fell by more than 15% in Tokyo, resulting in a £834 million drop of its market value – Mitsubishi stock’s biggest one-day drop in almost 12 years.
Lance Bradley, UK managing director of Mitsubishi Motors, has claimed there was no evidence to suggest any models sold in the UK or Europe have been affected. The company has only captured 1% of the UK market after selling more than one million vehicles last year.
Company bosses, including Mitsubishi Motors president Tetsuro Aikawa, held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon in Tokyo to address the news.
“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,” he said.
Aikawa stated that he felt “responsible”, despite claiming to be unaware of the aberrations.
In addition to the vehicles produced for Nissan, the incorrect tests affect 157,000 of its own cars – Mitsubishi’s ek Wagon and eK Space, in addition to Nissan’s Dayz and Dayz Roox models are all said to be affected.
Mitsubishi’s announcement is a further development within the car manufacturing industry, after Volkswagen’s diesel emissions scandal last year. While currently not appearing to be on as wide of a scale, the general consensus online is sceptical that it’ll end here.
VW is recalling millions of cars worldwide because of the scandal and has prepared £4.8 billion to cover costs.
The latest news will certainly put further pressure on other car manufacturers to assure each process of building its cars is ‘to the book’.
