Mitsubishi fuel economy scandal spreads beyond minicars

Mitsubishi Motors, which admitted last month 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, as well as ones that have been discontinued.

Chairman Osamu Masuko told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday 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 per cent.

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 Motors president Tetsuro Aikawa said.

Mitsubishi had raised the fuel economy targets five times for the minicar models to 29.2 kilometres/litre 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 testing, the company said.

The actual fuel economy of the nine models being probed didn’t differ from the stated figures.