Mitsubishi Says It Cheated on Fuel Tests for Decades
By JONATHAN SOBLE

TOKYO — Mitsubishi Motors admitted on Tuesday that it had used improper methods to test the fuel economy of cars sold in Japan for 25 years, drastically widening the scope of a mileage-doctoring scandal gripping the company.

The automaker said it still did not know exactly how many models had been given exaggerated fuel ratings. But it said it now believed it had been using unapproved methods since 1991 — a period that covers dozens of vehicle introductions and millions of cars and trucks.

Mitsubishi has been reviewing its tests since the revelations that it had cheated on ones for the mileage ratings of small-engine microcars that it sells in Japan and supplies to another Japanese automaker, Nissan, through a joint venture agreement. Nissan engineers discovered the discrepancy last year, the company said.

Last week, Mitsubishi said its cheating on fuel economy tests had affected 620,000 vehicles sold in the Japanese market since 2013.

Mitsubishi gave no indication that it had cheated on tests of cars sold in other markets.

“I’m truly sorry that customers were led to buy vehicles based on incorrect fuel-efficiency ratings,” Mitsubishi’s president, Tetsuro Aikawa, said at a news conference on Tuesday. “All I can do is apologize.”

Mr. Aikawa said that Mitsubishi was still investigating who ordered the cheating, and he suggested that the company may not have initially been aware that it was breaking the rules.

Last week, Mr. Aikawa said Mitsubishi employees had knowingly given the microcar line an exaggerated fuel rating by manipulating test conditions. The company’s share price has dropped by half since then, including a nearly 10 percent decline on Tuesday.

Mr. Aikawa was repeatedly pressed on Tuesday to say how many vehicles Mitsubishi now believes were affected. He declined to do so, saying the company was still investigating. But the use of unapproved testing methods appears to have been long prevalent.

“We are examining every model,” he said.

Mitsubishi is already a much-diminished brand, especially in its home market, where its market share has shriveled since a scandal in the 2000s. That affair also involved admissions of long-running malfeasance: Officials had been hiding reports of dangerous vehicle defects for decades.

In the latest revelations, Mitsubishi says it cheated Japanese regulators and car buyers by using an unapproved method to measure the effect of deceleration during fuel-economy testing. The method, which tends to give a more flattering mileage rating, is approved in the United States but not in Japan.

Different countries require different methodologies when testing the fuel economy of vehicles intended for sale in their markets. They may require tests that mimic their own particular driving conditions, for instance more highway driving in the United States, compared with more stop-and-start city driving in Japan.

Mitsubishi said it had begun using the unapproved tests in 1991 and had later incorporated data based on such tests into mathematical simulations that are also used to estimate fuel economy.

In 2007, Japanese regulators notified carmakers that they were adjusting their fuel-economy testing standards. Mitsubishi had new manuals printed, but its development department ignored them, the company said.

In the case of the microcar line, at least, engineers appear to have actively gamed the tests. During development in 2011, Mitsubishi said, it had initially given the vehicle, the eK, a fuel efficiency rating of 26.4 kilometers per liter, or 60 miles to the gallon. But between then and the car’s release in 2013, the rating “was repeatedly revised upward in internal company meetings,” until it ended up with a published standard fuel economy of 29.2 kilometers per liter.

三菱認了 油耗數據造假25年

日本三菱汽車廿六日坦承，採用不符日本規範的油耗測試方法、假造油耗數據已有廿五年，遠比先前承認的十四年還長，公司內部設定嚴苛的油耗標準，可能讓員工感受到壓力，進而誇大油耗數據，公司將延請外部人士組成委員會調查此事，並在三個月內報告結果。

三菱汽車副社長中尾龍吾說：「我們從一九九一年起，就對日本國內市場採用這種測試方法，不過我們還不知道牽涉到多少種車款。」

三菱汽車股價廿六日應聲下跌百分之九點五八，以每股四百卅四日圓（約台幣一百廿六元）作收。自從上周三菱承認假造四款輕型車的油耗數據後，三菱市值已跌掉一半，約卅九億美元（約台幣一千兩百億元）。

中尾龍吾說，日本政府從一九九一年起改變規定，要求油耗測試方法反映都市裡走走停停的開車方式，但三菱並沒遵守，「我們應該改的，卻沒有改」。

三菱高階主管横幕交二（音譯）說，公司在研發輕型車的兩年內，提高油耗標準五次，從每公升廿六點四公里提高到每公升廿九點二公里。中尾龍吾說，內部調查結果顯示，員工因此感受到壓力。

三菱說，假造油耗數據時是採用美國而非日本測試方法，在美國，高速行駛、車速穩定是常態，在日本，走走停停才是常態，也比較耗油，採用美國方法是因為需要的時間和路程都比較短。

三菱假造省油數據的車款包括十五萬七千輛eK Wagon和eK Space輕型車，以及為日產汽車製造的四十六萬八千輛Dayz和Dayz Roox。假造油耗數據問題在日產發現數據不一致後爆發。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/business/international/mitsubishi-fuel-economy-tests.html

Video：Mitsubishi President on Data Scandal
The president of Mitsubishi Motors admitted on Tuesday that the company had for 25 years used improper methods to test the fuel economy of cars sold in Japan.
http://nyti.ms/1qSxiCA

2016-04-27．聯合報．A15．國際．編譯李京倫