In a widening of a scandal that has already engulfed Mitsubishi Motors, Suzuki Motor Corp said it had used improper fuel economy tests for its cars in Japan but that proper testing subsequently had shown the mileage data did not need amending.

Taking responsibility for a major fuel economy scandal, the President of Mitsubishi, Tetsuro Aikawa will step down, the company said on Wednesday. This is the first significant casualty in the company that had admitted last month that it had manipulated fuel economy for four minivehicle models.

The admission prompted Japan’s transport ministry to ask domestic automakers to re-submit fuel economy readings on all their vehicles by Wednesday and the Japanese automaker was forced to agree to sell a one-third controlling stake to Nissan Motor Co.

While the Chief Executive of the company, Osamu Suzuki told reporters that his workers did not intentionally use improper data, Suzuki, Japan’s No.4 automaker, said 2.1 million vehicles were affected.

“The company apologizes for the fact that we did not follow rules set by the country,” Suzuki said.

After the company said it had used improper tests but before it briefed media, there has been a fall of 9.4 percent in the share price of the company. At one point they fell as much as 15 percent to their lowest level since November 2013.

Suzuki get preferential tax treatment under Japanese law for their specialized minivehicles that have engines of up to 660cc. Roughly one-third of the country’s minivehicle market is controlled by Suzuki.

The automaker that it did not see much impact on earnings for now and added that it plans to continue sales of its cars given that new readings had not deviated much from those previously submitted.

The impact has been much greater on Mitsubishi.

Mitsubishi said that  the data manipulation was due to “shortening of time spent on R&D, and expectations that high fuel-efficiency be achieved”.

“There was no direct order from top management in this incident,” Mitsubishi Chief Executive Osamu Masuko told reporters.

“But top management did not have a firm grasp on the proceedings at the R&D department,” he said. While there were several chances to stop its workers from using improper testing methods but that they did not stop.

After Germany’s Volkswagen admitted last year that it used “defeat devices” on 11 million diesel vehicles to lower emissions during tests, emissions and fuel economy have come under increasing scrutiny from regulators globally.

Last month some vehicles made by Renault, Fiat, Mercedes, VW, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Nissan, Opel and Ford failed to comply fully with its emissions regulations, said France which ordered tests on a random sample of about 100 diesel cars last year.

Accusing Nissan of manipulating emissions, the South Korea authorities announced that it would punish Nissan with a fine and a recall of its Qashqai diesel sport utility vehicles. The South Korean authorities has tested 20 diesel vehicle models.

Daimler, the maker of Mercedes vehicles, is being investigated by the Justice Department of the US over emissions testing.

(Adapted from Reuters)