Mitsubishi Sets Aside $480 Million for Compensating Owners Involved in the Fuel Economy Scandal

On Friday, Mitsubishi Motors announced that it will set aside 50 billion yen (about $480 million) this fiscal year to compensate buyers for inflated fuel economy figures. Bloomberg reports that the Japanese automaker admitted that 20 vehicles sold in Japan within the past ten years had false fuel economy data.

Mitsubishi said in a statement they used “desktop calculations” instead of running actual field tests and used the false data on the twenty models built from 2006 to this year. They also lowered the resistance readings on some models to give better fuel economy numbers. Mitsubishi reiterated they didn't find any false fuel economy data on models sold overseas.

The compensation plan will see Mitsubishi pay 100,000 yen (about $955.63) to each minicar owner and pay for the difference in gasoline and taxes separately. Mitsubishi also announced that it expects Japan's transport ministry to approve the recalculated fuel efficiency ratings of its minicars by the end of the month.

One more thing: The investigation being done by three former prosecutors into the scandal are expected to present their results sometime next month.

Source: Bloomberg