The nation's major minicar makers, including Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Nissan Motor Co., saw their sales tumble in May in what is believed to be fallout from the fuel economy cheating scandal, data from an industry body showed Wednesday.
Mitsubishi Motors was the major loser for the month, reporting a 75 percent year-on-year drop to 912 units, after it admitted in late April to having inflated the fuel economy of some of its minicar models, including ones supplied to Nissan Motor Co.
At Nissan, sales of minicars, loaded with engines no larger than 660 cc, tumbled 76.8 percent to 3,105 units, according to the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association.
Suzuki saw its sales drop 15.4 percent to 38,094 units, as it revealed in mid-May that it had since 2010 used fuel economy testing methods that did not conform to Japanese regulations.
A total of 2.14 million units involving 26 Suzuki models have been affected by the latest debacle, but the company said Tuesday its retests confirmed that the fuel economy of the models was actually better than their catalogue figures.
The nation's total sales of minicars fell 14.3 percent in May to 107,834 units, marking the 17th straight monthly decline.
The combined auto sales in May stood at 331,587 units, down 1.2 percent from a year earlier. When minicars are excluded, sales of passenger cars gained 6.6 percent to 223,753 units, data by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association showed.