U.S. auto safety regulator looking into Mitsubishi fuel economy issue

TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. safety regulator said on Friday it had asked Mitsubishi Motors Corp for information on its vehicles sold in the United States, after the automaker admitted this week that it had manipulated fuel economy test results on some of its Japanese models. "We've requested information from Mitsubishi about this issue," a spokesman from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington told Reuters by phone. He declined to comment on which models it had requested information on, or whether it had requested data from other automakers. Mitsubishi Motors said it had overstated the fuel efficiency of 625,000 cars, sending its share price plunging and prompting a raid by Japanese authorities on one of its facilities. (Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)