Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors finds falsified fuel mileage tests

An employee leaves the Mitsubishi Motors North America plant Friday, July 24, 2015, in Normal, Ill., driving the plant’s sole product, an Outlander. The company’s North American spokesman Dan Irvin said Friday that the Japanese automaker has completed a review of its global supply chain and been informed it is “necessary” to end production and find a buyer for the plant. (David Proeber/The Pantagraph via AP)

TOKYO— Mitsubishi Motors Corp. says it found evidence its employees falsified fuel mileage test data for several models of vehicles. The announcement was made in April.

The maker of the eK wagon and Outlander sports-utility vehicle said Wednesday that the inaccurate tests involved 157,000 of its own-brand light passenger cars and 468,000 vehicles produced for Nissan Motor Co.

The problem was found after Nissan pointed out inconsistencies in data. Mitsubishi conducted an internal probe and data was falsified.

Mitsubishi Motors struggled for years to win back consumer trust after an auto defects scandal in the early 2000s over cover-ups of problems such as failing brakes, faulty clutches and fuel tanks prone to falling off. TVJ