Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) plans to keep minivehicle production at its Mizushima plant suspended until the end of June, reports Jiji Press. The development comes on the back of an ongoing fuel-efficiency scandal in Japan after Mitsubishi admitted to falsifying test data for some of its vehicles . Citing unnamed sources, the report adds that MMC has put nearly 1,300 employees at the plant on standby. The automaker is also reportedly considering offering leave allowance to factory workers in June, as it did in May. Under May's allowance, the standby workers received 85% of their salary until the fifth day of suspension and 100% beyond that. Separately, Mitsubishi has today (27 May) issued a recall notice for 5,596 units of the Delica D:2 in Japan to fix a faulty airbag control program that may lead to airbag deployment failure at the time of a crash. Affected models were manufactured between 23 November 2013 and 12 May 2016.

Significance: MMC's Mizushima plant is located in Okayama Prefecture (Japan) and manufactures four models involved in the fuel-efficiency scandal: the eK Wagon and eK Space, and the Nissan-badged versions of those models, the Dayz and Dayz Roox. According to IHS Automotive production data, the models accounted for 61% of total output at the plant in 2015. Besides these, models such as the Lancer, i-MIEV, Minicab Truck, and Minicab Van, as well as PSA's C-Zero and Ion, are also produced at the plant. According to our data, total output at the plant reached 309,147 units in 2015, down 4.6% year on year (y/y). Following the scandal, the automaker announced that it would stop all production and sales of the affected minivehicle models sold in Japan. Under its latest recall, Mitsubishi plans to rewrite the potentially faulty airbag control programme or replace it, if needed.