TOKYO (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Motors Corp (T:7211) said a Nissan Motor Co (T:7201) executive would become its head of research and development, part of a management overhaul in the wake of a mileage cheating scandal that also prompted it to restate earnings.
Nissan is preparing to take a controlling one-third stake in Mitsubishi, which is reeling from its third scandal in two decades. Mitsubishi has seen over $3 billion wiped off its market value after admitting last month it overstated the fuel economy of at least four of its models in Japan, including two sold by Nissan.
Mitsuhiko Yamashita, currently a senior technology adviser at Nissan, will take on the R&D role from June 24.
He has been closely involved with the development of all-electric cars, and helped lead Nissan's collaboration in electric fuel-cell cars with Daimler AG (DE:DAIGn) and Ford Motor Co (N:F). He also previously headed the company's technical research center in the United States.
Mitsubishi Motors Chairman and CEO Osamu Masuko will also be president, taking over that role from Tetsuro Aikawa, who will leave the company.
Japan's sixth-largest automaker also announced a special loss of 19.1 billion yen ($174 million) for the year that ended in March related to its manipulation of fuel economy data.
As a result, it said net profit fell 39 percent to 72.6 billion yen in the year that ended in March. It had previously reported that profit fell by a quarter to 89 billion yen.
The company did not provide forecasts for the current year.