Mitsubishi Motors will investigate whether cars exported from Japan have falsified fuel economy information after the automaker admitted to manipulating data involving 625,000 cars in its home market.
Mitsubishi President Tetsuro Aikawa bowed in apology at a news conference in Tokyo yesterday as the automaker said it falsified data to make CO2 emissions levels and fuel economy look more favorable in four mini cars.
The issue came to light when Nissan questioned figures supplied by Mitsubishi for models it supplied to them in a joint venture deal.
The cars are the Mitsubishi eK Wagon and eK Space, as well as the Dayz and Dayz Roox supplied to Nissan, Mitsubishi said.
None are imported to the UK. However, Mitsubishi said in their statement that they will look into models made for export to other markets.
Since the Volkswagen scandal broke in the US last year, Hyundai, Kia and Ford have been penalised for falsifying emissions.
German investigators who seized 1,500 VW Group laptops as part of their diesel-gate probe said they contained obscure code-words used in the systems and these will delay a full and accurate report.
Audi developed diesel-deceit devices in 1999 but never activated them on their models, claim media reports in Germany.