Mitsubishi Motors to pay owners of fuel-cheating cars

Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors plans to compensate customers in a bid to limit the fallout from a fuel-efficiency cheating scandal, the Nikkei reported on Saturday.

Authorities raided the company's office on Thursday after the company admitted it had falsified efficiency data for hundreds of thousands of vehicles.

Mitsubishi Motors shares plunged more than 40 percent in the three days after the news emerged, their worst hat-trick of losses since the company listed in 1988.

The scandal has raised questions about the Japanese carmaker's future, after German giant Volkswagen posted its first loss in 20 years in 2015 because of the fallout from its own huge emissions-rigging scandal.

Mitsubishi Motors plans to offer to cover the extra fuel costs incurred by vehicle owners because their engines were less efficient than advertised, the Nikkei reported.

The move aims to "appease angry customers' nonstop inquiries" and prevent an "exodus" of buyers, the Japanese business daily said, without giving its sources.

Mitsubishi Motors has said it will halt production of more than 600,000 affected vehicle models -- mini-cars sold in Japan, including some made for rival Nissan.

But that has not been enough to save off criticism of the company, which was brought to the brink of bankruptcy in 2004 over revelations it covered up defects in its vehicles.

"I can't help but have doubt about the company's basic attitude towards compliance," Japan's transport minister Keiichi Ishii told reporters Friday.

"This is extremely regrettable."