Mitsubishi's dieselgate: cheating since 1991

Mitsubishi has admitted that it cheated on emissions standards tests for a quarter of a century, and it admits that this affected 600,000 cars, but the company says that the cheating cars were only sold to Japanese people.

Prediction: the company will admit that the number of cars is much bigger, and effects far more countries than Japan.

The company says it will pay a committee of "independent" investigators, with "no conflict of interest" to investigate the matter, over three months. That'll be all right then.

Mitsubishi falsified fuel economy tests on over half a million vehicles, the Japanese car giant has admitted.

In a statement published online, Mitsubishi confirmed it had misrepresented fuel consumption rates on four models of car, two of which were Mitsubishi-branded, and two of which were built for Nissan. Over 600,000 vehicles in total were tested using methods other than those required by Japanese law.

"We express deep apologies to all of our customers and stakeholders for this issue," Mitsubishi said. "Taking into account the seriousness of these issues, we will also conduct an investigation into products manufactured for overseas markets."

The company notes, "The cars in question are only sold in the Japanese domestic market," such as the eK Space, above, and not sold in the US, UK or Australia.


Mitsubishi cheated fuel economy tests since 1991, report says
[Luke Westaway/Cnet]

Establishment of Special Investigation Committee
[Mitsubishi]

(Image: Mitsubishi eK Wagon rear, TTTNIS, PD)