TOKYO — Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced employees intentionally falsified fuel mileage data for various vehicle models, according to The Associated Press.

This scandal follows the Japanese automaker’s massive recall cover-up 15 years ago, stated the article.

The falsified tests by Mitsubishi included 157,000 of its own-brand eK wagon and eK Space light passenger cars, reported the article, as well as 468,000 Dayz and Dayz Roox vehicles produced for Nissan Motor Co.

Produced from March 2013, continued the article, the models are referred to as “minicars,” which feature tiny engines that are mainly attractive for generally having great mileage.

The automaker reported that the mileage problem was brought to light after Nissan pointed out inconsistencies in the data, informed the article.

Mitsubishi then conducted “an internal probe and found that tire pressure data was falsified to make mileage appear better than it actually was,” stated the article.

“The wrongdoing was intentional. It is clear the falsification was done to make the mileage look better. But why they would resort to fraud to do this is still unclear,” said Tetsuro Aikawa, company president, to reporters, adding that even though he wasn’t aware that the irregularities were happening he felt responsible.

The automaker noted that it would also investigate if data was altered for vehicles sold overseas, added the article.

According to Mitsubishi, as reported in the article, fuel economy was incorrectly boosted by approximately five percent or 10 percent on the affected models, which were billed as getting 71.5 miles per gallon (30.4 kilometers per liter).

Production and sales for all affected models has been halted.

You can find the article here.