Mitsubishi Motors stock is down 33% after cheating on fuel economy tests

Mitsubishi Motors stock is getting killed

Shares at Mitsubishi have plummeted by 33% in the last two days after the company was found to be cheating on its fuel economy tests.

The Japan-based automaker admitted on Wednesday afternoon that it had illegally rigged fuel economy tests affecting hundreds of thousands of vehicles.

The company’s stock shed $2.5 billion in market cap and is now selling at a record low.

Following the revelation of fuel mileage cheating, Japanese authorities raided Mitsubishi’s offices.

“This is a case of manipulation of test data which undermines consumers’ trust, and it should not have happened,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference.

The rigged fuel economy tests affect four minicar models that are sold only in Japan.

The company also supplies two of the models to its bigger counterpart, Nissan.

Mitsubishi is halting production and sales of the cars. It said it had sold 157,000 units of two of the models, and supplied 468,000 units of the other two models to Nissan.

The affected models are sold under the names eK Wagon, eK Space, Dayz and Dayz Roox.

This isn’t the first time a major automaker has lied about fuel economy. Ford compensated more than 200,000 customers after determining that it had overstated gas mileage.

Hyundai and Kia paid a combined $100 million fine to the US government after overstating fuel economy estimates for their vehicles.

Written by John Howard

John Howard
