Mitsubishi released a statement to coincide with a press briefing this morning, in which it said: “we found that with respect to the fuel consumption testing data, the company conducted testing improperly to present better fuel consumption rates than the actual rates…We express deep apologies to all of our customers and stakeholders for this issue.”

Just as the dust was beginning to settle following last year’s explosive VW emissions scandal , it’s emerged that Mitsubishi has also dabbled in economy test fiddling.

When announcing that it was about to release details of misconduct in emissions testing earlier today, the company’s shares plunged by 17 per cent, wiping out $1.2 billion in the process.

625,000 cars are affected, all of which are only for sale in Asia. The four models that have fallen foul are the Mitsubishi eK Wagon and eK Space, plus the Dayz and Dayz Roox, which are both manufactured for Nissan. The bulk of the cars affected - 468,000 - are the ones made for Nissan, and it’s actually Nissan that discovered and reported the discrepancies originally.

Nissan has halted sales of the Dayz and Dayz Roox in Japan, while Mitsubishi has also suspended sales, and stopped production of the offending vehicles.