Mitsubishi Motors had a little diesel emissions scandal of their own.
Remember Dieselgate – Volkswagen’s gift that keeps on giving? Well, this year, its effects were felt by Mitsubishi Motors in Europe. The Japanese automaker paid a 25 million euro fine by German prosecutors over fraud allegations. The fine was not appealed and Mitsubishi Motors agreed to pay the full amount straight away. In fact, the fine actually was issued and paid for back in March 2021, but news of its is only coming out today.
We wonder if Mitsubishi Motors UK selling off their fleet of classic cars, including the record-setting Tommi Makinen Lancer had anything to do with paying this fine.
The probe by German authorities concerned Mitsubishi vehicles running 1.6-litre and 2.2-litre diesel engines that were rated to conform with Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards. These engines were suspected to have been equipped with shutdown devices that would alter engine behaviour in tests.
It’s unclear what the authorities found, but they did think it was worthy of a sizeable fine. That being said, they also noted that violations were not done knowingly or wilfully and there was no fraudulent behaviour detected.
We wonder what exactly lead to the fines then. Perhaps there’s some technicality in the emissions requirements that engineers may have missed out on.
What does this have to do with Dieselgate?
Well, it was because of the whole Dieselgate saga that regulators starting to look into how carmakers were conducting their emissions tests. Volkswagen was found to have programmed their vehicles to conform to emissions standards only when test conditions were detected (when there was no steering input, the ECU would presume it was being tested for emissions).
Volkswagen was found out by the California Air Resources Board and some talented University researchers. When they finally admitted guilt, all hell broke loose.
After that unfolded, authorities around the world, not just in Europe began cracking down on carmakers.
Mitsubishi’s Other Data Scandal
In Japan, Mitsubishi was already called out for manipulating test data on kei cars they made for Nissan. It’s worth noting that these tests were to do with fuel efficiency of petrol cars rather than the emissions of diesel cars. It was that which lead to Nissan’s eventual buyout of the company.
