Mitsubishi Motors Corp is planning to pay compensation of around $600 million to compensate owners of four minivehicles models where it overstated mileage readings, with each owner receiving 100,000 yen ($960), the Nikkei newspaper said on Friday.
Mitsubishi in April admitted to overstating the fuel economy for some 625,000 minivehicles including two models produced for Nissan Motor Co. It has said improper mileage calculations may have been used for nine other models.
Test manipulation involved 625,000 mini-vehicles produced since mid-2013: Mitsubishi’s eK Wagon and eK Space, and 468,000 cars it made for Nissan, which markets them as the Dayz and Dayz Roox. All were sold in Japan.
The scandal, which the company has blamed on pressure to deliver competitive mileage readings and poor supervision of testing processes, has led to plans for Nissan to take a one-third controlling stake in the embattled automaker. Aikawa will step down later this month.
In the wake of the scandal, Japanese automakers’ mileage calculations have come under increased scrutiny. An investigation by the transport ministry has found that Suzuki Motor Corp was also using wrong methods to calculate mileage for models going back to 2010.
(Reuters)
