Mitsubishi Motors Corp has been ordered by the US Environmental Protection Agency to provide additional information and conduct an additional test on US vehicles. Mitsubishi has admitted of falsifying fuel economy test procedures since 1991.
Laura Allen, the spokeswoman for the EPA, has already instructed the Japanese automaker to provide the needed information. The agency want an additional coast down testing for the vehicles that were sold in the US as per Reuters.
The Japanese company was reported to have lost half of its market value which was estimated to be $3.9 billion since the issue has come out in the open. According to CNN Money, investors tried to push Mitsubishi's shares down by 4% in Tokyo. It has been reported that its shares have been sitting at a record low.
As reported by Auto Express, there are still no estimates on the number of models that are affected by the scandal but the issue has already wiped out significant money off Mitsubishi shares. It is said that it has lost 50 percent of its market value.
Mark Rosekind of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the recent news has opted them to collect more data for an investigation. The NHTSA has also asked Mitsubishi to provide them with more recent and concrete information.
According to Autodata Corp, Mitsubishi has sold around 75,342 vehicles in the United States in 2015. These increased their sales to up to 22.8 percent, accounting for around .5 percent of the total US auto industry sales. In the first 3 months of 2016, Mitsubishi's sales also experienced a 6 percent increase.
Mitsubishi admitted that the aggressive internal targets in fuel economy on their vehicles may have placed pressure on employees prompting them to rig the results of the test. The company has already set up an external committee that would investigate the matter.
Mitsubishi, however, reassured the US market that it used appropriate testing methods on vehicles sold in the country. The company added that there have been no indications that the data has been manipulated in vehicles sold in other overseas markets as well.
