It's Official: Mitsubishi Has Been Rigging Fuel Economy Tests
Just as the dust was beginning to settle following last year’s explosive VW emissions scandal, it’s emerged that Mitsubishi has also dabbled in economy test fiddling.
Mitsubishi released a statement to coincide with a press briefing this morning, in which it said: “we found that with respect to the fuel consumption testing data, the company conducted testing improperly to present better fuel consumption rates than the actual rates…We express deep apologies to all of our customers and stakeholders for this issue.”
When announcing that it was about to release details of misconduct in emissions testing earlier today, the company’s shares plunged by 17 per cent, wiping out $1.2 billion in the process.
625,000 cars are affected, all of which are only for sale in Asia. The four models that have fallen foul are the Mitsubishi eK Wagon and eK Space, plus the Dayz and Dayz Roox, which are both manufactured for Nissan. The bulk of the cars affected - 468,000 - are the ones made for Nissan, and it’s actually Nissan that discovered and reported the discrepancies originally.
Nissan has halted sales of the Dayz and Dayz Roox in Japan, while Mitsubishi has also suspended sales, and stopped production of the offending vehicles.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Move out Dieselgate, Fuelgate is here!
I’m actually glad that this is now confirmed, because now when yet another person says to me that my VW is polluting too much, because its a diesel (although its not affected) and that I should immediately get rid of it and buy a jdm car, I can now say that they should stfu and go smell some Mitsubishi exhaust instead :)
I think you misinterpreted this article.
To be fair to manufacturers, the worldwide emission limits and fuel economy requirements imposed by various govts in each country are unbelievably difficult to meet. I’m telling you, almost all manufacturers will have a shady past to come forward with in the next few years. These govt and environmental agencies that always keep prodding the manufacturers for fuel efficient and zero emission vehicles think that the R&D dept has a magical stick that can automatically increase fuel economy and reduce emissions by half at their whims and fancies. If manufacturers had that sort of magic, they wouldn’t wait to upgrade their cars to meet future requirements and would happily do it on their own.
R&D is a big money consumer. You can achieve better fuel econonomy but it’s cheaper and faster to cheat. The money they lost now is hurting them but at the same time, they saved a lot of money by not spending millions on R&D.
oh. what a surprise….. a car manufacturer who fakes data.
Is really anyone surprised to hear this ? When VW was cought, it just triggered chain of events, and its just a matter of time when everyone is cought. Some may manage to hide it, but others wont be as lucky…
Is this the end of mitsubishi?
i really hope not
DUN DUN DUNN
So it’s related to just four Asia-only models? No mention of any models sold in the rest of the world having this issue?
Let’s keep calling it the VW-Scandal -.-
I don’t see how that’s truly that scandalous. Obviously every car maker lies about their car’s fuel consumption and everybody knows about it too. Everyone knows you have to virtually ‘add’ around 2 liters to the advertised comsumption when buying a car to have a more precise estimation of the fuel economy, it’s common practice. What really needs to change are the horrendously unrealistic and nonsensical comsumption tests done by the various authorities in charge (the USA do their testing right at least, I’m looking at the EU in particular) that force the manufacturers to present completely light-weighted cars to the tests that differ hugely from the ones actually for sale. Rant Over.
Really? You guys still have to do with math with your consumption estimates? Ever since the EPA changed their testing in ‘07-‘08, the numbers are almost right on the money, I just assumed the rest of the world had also moved to something that accurate.
They pretty much just sliced their own ties……kinda pathetic
Every company does something similar to this in order to stay competitive with the other companies that did it before them. Let’s just see who’s next…