The president of Mitsubishi Motors resigned Wednesday in an effort to take full responsibility for the company’s deepening fuel economy scandal.
Mitsubishi President Tetsuro Aikawa’s decision to step down comes amid allegations Mitsubishi and fellow Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corp. admitted tampering with fuel emission tests to keep above the fray in an increasingly competitive industry.
The two companies are being scrutinized after Volkswagen was tied up in a similar fuel emission cheating scandal in 2015.
“I must step down so that a fundamental reform can take place in the vehicle development department,” Aikawa, who led Mitsubishi’s development division, told The Wall Street Journal.
Mitsubishi, Japan’s sixth largest automaker, has been under intense pressure to speed up the development of more fuel-efficient vehicles, likely prompting the lax attitude toward testing.
Nissan moved to acquire more than 34 percent of the controlling stake in the scandal-plagued company. Nissan claims it will change the culture inside Mitsubishi, while at the same time increase global sales. Nissan intends to have one of its executives lead Mitsubishi’s development department.
Mitsubishi says none of so-called minicars tainted by the fuel testing scandal were sold outside of Japan.
The pressure to hit fuel sales goals ensnared Suzuki as well. Suzuki, Japan’s fourth biggest automaker, said it also manipulated data to test mileage data on 16 model cars sold in Japan.
“We apologize for not having used the designated measuring method,” Suzuki Chief Executive Osamu Suzuki said at a news conference.
The tampered tests have affected Japan’s minicars, which have accounted for some 40 percent of the country’s overall auto sales of around five million vehicles in 2015.
Mitsubishi Motor’s overall market value has tumbled nearly 50 percent as a result of the April 21 cheating scandal.
The company has lost nearly 50 percent, or $3.2 billion, of its market value.
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