Taking responsibility for the mileage cheating scandal unfolding at Mitsubishi Motors, the brand’s boss, Tetsuro Aikawa, will step down from his position.
The decision is official and will be effective June 24, when the automaker will hold its annual shareholder’s meeting. “I must step down so that a fundamental reform can take place in the vehicle department“, Aikawa said, quoted by TheWallStreetJournal.
Aikawa, 64, will be joined by Executive Vice President, Ryugo Nakao, and since Nissan will become the Mitsubishi’s largest shareholder after it will buy 34 percent stake for $2.2 billion, Tetsuro Aikawa will ask the rivaling brand to deploy an executive to take the reins at Mitsubishi Motors’ development department, as Bloomberg reports.
Aikawa has denied personal involvement, but he previously apologized for the use of improper fuel economy tests, admitting that the brand altered testing data deliberately to show better fuel consumption rates on four mini cars sold in Japan.
There are more than 600,000 Mitsubishi vehicles with falsified fuel economy figures, as the manufacturer announced last month, but with rigging going back 25 years, all Mitsubishi vehicles sold in the Land of the Rising sun may be affected, including discontinued models.