Mitsubishi Motors Corp. on Monday resumed production of four minicar models at a plant in western Japan, following a 2½ month suspension as a result of a fuel data manipulation scandal.

Some 1,300 employees who had been told to stay home will go back to work at the Mizushima plant in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, although production is not expected to return to pre-suspension levels until October or later, Mitsubishi Motors said.

Workers conducted checks on the plant's production lines that had been offline since late April, with five cars expected to be built on Monday.