Mitsubishi Motors said yesterday it would resume selling four car models at the centre of a fuel-cheating scandal that hammered its reputation and slammed the brakes on sales.
The announcement comes about two months after the company admitted it had been falsifying mileage tests for years, manipulating data to make cars seem more efficient than they were.
Yesterday, Japan’s transport ministry said the four affected models – all minicars sold in Japan – were on average 11% less efficient than they claimed.
Mitsubishi stopped selling the cars voluntarily in the wake of the scandal.
“The group is planning to restart production in July,” a company spokeswoman said.
Mini-cars, or kei-cars, are small vehicles with 660cc gasoline engines that are hugely popular in the Japanese market, although they have found little success abroad.
Two of the models were made for rival Nissan, which first uncovered problems with the fuel economy data.
Mitsubishi has said the company had no part in the cheating.
Nissan last month threw a lifeline to Mitsubishi as it announced plans to buy a one-third stake in the crisis-hit automaker for $2.2bn, forging an alliance that will challenge some of the world’s biggest auto groups.
Last week, Mitsubishi warned it would post a $480mn special loss for the current fiscal year to pay compensation to customers for the mileage cheating that affected numerous models and had been going on for about quarter of a century.
Local media said the firm was on track to post its first fiscal year net loss in eight years.
Since the scandal emerged, Mitsubishi’s sales in Japan have slumped and the company has said its president would resign.
Meanwhile, Mitsubishi Motors said it expects to post a net loss this year after a scandal around manipulated fuel economy tests triggered hefty compensation costs and a drop in vehicle sales, Kyodo news agency reported yesterday.
Japan’s sixth-largest automaker admitted in April to overstating the mileage on four of its minivehicles, including two models it produced for Nissan Motor Co, problems it blamed on competitive pressures and poor oversight.
Under a month later, Nissan agreed to take a one-third controlling stake in the group.
Asked to comment on the unsourced report, Mitsubishi Motors chief executive Osamu Masuko said yesterday the company would seek to contain the cost of the scandal in this financial year, but he did not say whether that would drag it into the red.
“(The scandal) will likely hurt us this year, and the extent to which we can recover from it, will depend up on how well we can leverage our synergies with Nissan,” he said.
The automaker said last week it planned to give owners of four minivehicles close to $1,000 in compensation for its overstating of mileage readings, part of reimbursement costs that will total at least $600mn.
It said yesterday it was also setting aside up to ¥9bn ($86.19mn) to reimburse customers for lost “eco car” tax breaks for models with overstated mileage readings, adding it planned to resume production of those vehicles early next month.
Mitsubishi Motors had already announced it expects a charge of ¥50bn ($480mn) this business year due to compensation costs.
Separately, Japan’s government said sales of Mitsubishi vehicles with overstated mileage levels could resume.
Production will start in early July, Masuko said. Government tests had showed that fuel economy for the minivehicles was on average 11% lower than their advertised readings but the transport ministry said that this would not lead to change in their vehicle classification.