Nissan Motors
Pictured- Nissan logoReuters

In a development that is going to further hurt the fossil-fuel-powered cars, Japanese multinational car-maker Nissan has reportedly admitted to falsifying emission data.

The revelation has stirred up sentiments akin to those that were seen in the aftermath of the 2015 Volkswagen emission scandal.

The VW scandal, which was also called emissiongate or dieselgate, saw the rolling of several heads at the carmaker and its subsidiaries. The latest of these was Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, arrested last month over fears that he might hinder the investigation.

There are now fears that a quite similar scandal might have taken place in Japan, where Nissan factories are under the scanner.

'Altered measurement values'

According to a BBC report, Nissan has admitted that emission and environmental tests on its cars at most of its factories in Japan "deviated from the prescribed testing environment."

The carmaker also said it had initiated a "full and comprehensive investigation" into the matter. It said the faulty inspection reports had been based upon "altered measurement values."

However, it did not disclose exactly how many cars had been affected. It also did not say if Nissan cars made outside Japan were also affected, or whether the affected cars would be recalled.

A New York Times report blamed workers at the Nissan factory for this oversight. Both reports said Nissan claimed all cars except those in the GT-R range met emission norms in Japan.

Not as bad as Volkswagen scandal?

An analysis attached with the BBC report claimed the Nissan incident might not be as bad as the VW scandal, where emission numbers were cooked from 2008 to 2015.

The BBC analysis said Nissan "seems to have been running its testing system very badly, they did not meet legal requirements and measurements were altered."

On the other hand, German authorities last month fined VW around €1 billion for selling 10 million faulty cars in the country. And this was just in one country, with penalties from some other countries expected to be as high, if not much steeper.