Mitsubishi Motors has offered 100,000 yen as compensation to Japanese owners as a result of a inflated mileage scandal. The move will cost the motor company more than $600m after it was revealed that the scandal extended to all of its Japanese models sold within the past decade.
Recently, car rivals Nissan took a 34% stake in Mitsubishi, costing $2.2bn. As a result, the company will need to consider compensation for Nissan as it builds two models for the company too.
According to the FT, the scandal comes after evidence was discovered that suggested that improper fuel economy data being used in all 20 types of its vehicles sold in Japan from 2006. Five models had their fuel figures intentionally manipulated by employees.
Japan Today reports that Mitsubishi MOtors Corp acknowledged that it was systematically cheating on its mileage tests on a variety of models for decades but has denied any falsified mileage data on its overseas models. Last month, Tetsuro Aikawa, the President of Mitsubishi Motors, said that he will step down to take responsibility of the scandal, but denied any personal involvement.
This is not the first time Mitsubishi has been dishonest with its customers. Japan Today reports that in the early 2000s, the car manufacturer had disclosed a wide array of cover-ups, including brake failures, faulty clutches and fuel tanks that were prone to fall off. These cover-ups dated back to the 1970s.
