Nissan Motor prepares to recall 1.2 million cars in Japan after it found final vehicle evaluations were not performed by authorized professionals, it stated on Monday.
Japan’s second-biggest car maker said the recall would cost it around 25 billion yen ($222 million) to re-inspect vehicles produced for the domestic market from October 2014 to September 2017, that include leading sellers the Serena minivan and the Note compact hatchback.
“We need to take the registration structure and procedures seriously, regardless of how busy we might be or how short-staffed we might be,” CEO Hiroto Saikawa informed reporters.
“We apologize for the hassle caused to our customers.”
Saikawa added the automaker was investigating how and why the assessments happened, a process anticipated to take around a month. A 3rd party will participate in an internal investigation into the matter, he stated.
The announcement is the newest by a Japanese car maker over inappropriate conduct, and comes a year and a half after Mitsubishi Motors admitted it had falsified the fuel economy for a few of its domestic market models, which resulted in Nissan taking a controlling stake in its smaller competitor.
It broadens the scope of an issue reported recently, when Nissan at first stated it would suspend the registration of 60,000 vehicles concerning unauthorized evaluations.
The automaker’s shares dropped as much as 5.3 percent to their lowest since April prior to shutting down 2.7 percent. The benchmark Nikkei average stock cost index.N225 was at 0.2 percent.
Nissan made 386,000 vehicles for the domestic market in last year. Automakers should register all such vehicles with Japan’s government prior sale, with owners renewing the registrations of passenger vehicles every 3 years.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation stated on Friday it has asked Nissan to report procedures to prevent a recurrence of the concern by the end of this month.
