Mitsubishi Caught Cheating On EPA Fuel Economy Figures

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said it manipulated mileage test data for its minicars sold in Japan, resulting in 620,000 vehicles produced in the past three years getting labeled more fuel efficient than they actually are.

The tests overstated fuel efficiency by 5 percent to 10 percent, and Mitsubishi Motors said it’s investigating who’s responsible. The company said the violation may result in the Japanese automaker having to pay back government tax rebates for the vehicles, of which 468,000 were supplied to Nissan Motor Co.

TheSteve - 4/20/2016 12:50:07 PM

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Just as a reminder, VW did that too, but it was buried as part of the Dieselgate scandal. VW's method was to cut lubricants with diesel fuel to reduce friction, and tape up seams to reduce air turbulence. This resulted in artificially high fuel economy numbers, and artificially low CO2 emissions numbers (which are related to fuel economy), and that resulted in countries who charge consumers a CO2 tax to sue VW for tax fraud.

I think we'd be foolish to believe VW and Mitsubishi are the only offenders.

MDarringer - 4/20/2016 10:41:53 PM

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Mitsubishi: board up your dealerships. Take your 3rd world automotive garbage and go the hell home.

nguyenvuminh - 4/20/2016 11:05:42 PM

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The list of the cars violating testing protocol are exclusively the ultra small cars sold in Japan. None of the models are sold here in the US. Many of those are then rebadged as Nissans. But apparently, even those ultra small cars are too much of a threat to the Lincolns sold in Bakersfield for MDarringer.

TomM - 4/21/2016 6:34:40 AM

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Indeed - the Mitsubishi problem has NOTHING to do with the EPA at all. While Mitsubishi once made decent cars - they no longer make anything really compelling - and virtually all of what they make is not sold in the USA.

skytop - 4/21/2016 8:17:24 AM

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Why doesn't Mitsubishi just stick to building superior ships and pull the plug on their failing car biz.