TOKYO -- The mileage scandal at Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is widening after the Japanese government ordered sales of eight more models halted after finding their mileage ratings were falsely inflated.
The Japanese automaker had acknowledged in April that it systematically falsified mileage data on its eK Wagon and eK Space minicars, also produced for Nissan Motor Co.
At that time, it said no other models were affected. But the transport ministry conducted its own tests and said Tuesday that it found other models, including the Pajero sport utility vehicle, had inflated-mileage estimates by as much as 8.8 percent, and on average 4.2 percent.
No overseas models are affected.
The ministry said the cruise range on the i-MiEV electric car also was overstated.
The company had claimed the car traveled 112 miles on a single charge, but it went 107 miles under government testing, company spokesman Shinji Akiyama said Wednesday.
"Of several data we came up with on mileage for the models, we used the best ones, not the average," he said. "We are sorry for the trouble we have caused our customers."
Osamu Masuko, chairman and president of Mitsubishi, offered an apology Tuesday at a news conference in Tokyo over the news that checks by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry had revealed that fuel-efficiency figures for the eight models were lower than those listed in catalogs.
"Our sense of compliance has been low. We must improve it thoroughly," he said.
The company has already submitted documents to the government with the corrected mileage, and when the procedure is completed it can again start selling the vehicles, Akiyama said. Sales of the minicars also initially were halted until proper documents could be submitted.
Sales of Mitsubishi vehicles in Japan have nose-dived, falling 35 percent in July compared with the same month last year.
Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Motors is promising to compensate the more than 76,000 vehicle owners in Japan with $290 to $970 in cash. It has announced similar compensation for those who bought the minicars.
Such costs are expected to add $1.5 billion in extraordinary losses, and the automaker said the new compensation will add another $68 million.
Nissan has said it is taking a 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi to help its turnaround, although Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn has stressed the deal is not final until "due diligence" is completed.
Nissan has said it expects to close the deal before the end of the year and is confident of its merits, although it declined comment on Mitsubishi's latest mileage scandal.
"We are not in a position to comment, since due diligence is ongoing, and the deal is pending regulatory approval," Nissan spokesman Nick Maxfield said.
Mitsubishi's reputation has been hammered by a huge, systematic and decades-long cover-up of defects that surfaced in the early 2000s.
Information for this article was contributed by Takashi Itoda of The Japan News.
Business on 09/01/2016