Daihatsu Motor Co., a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corp., said it manipulated crash test results on 88,000 cars that were manufactured in Thailand and Malaysia and sold within the past year.
(Bloomberg) — Daihatsu Motor Co., a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corp., said it manipulated crash test results on 88,000 cars that were manufactured in Thailand and Malaysia and sold within the past year.
The issue affects Toyota-branded Yaris Ativ and Agya models, as well as Perodua cars produced by a Malaysian joint venture and another vehicle being developed by Daihatsu. They were sold in Thailand, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Indonesia and Mexico, Daihatsu said Friday.
The cars had components in their door trims during crash tests that likely influenced the results and were different to those eventually sold to the public, Daihatsu said. Tests will be conducted again and sales will resume if the vehicles are certified properly, the automaker said.
“We sincerely apologize to the customers and stakeholders whose trust and support we have betrayed,” Daihatsu President Soichiro Okudaira said at a media briefing Friday. A third party will investigate the matter, he said.
Brand Impacted
The affected Toyota models have undergone internal safety testing since Thursday and were found to have no issues, Toyota’s Chairman Akio Toyoda said during a separate briefing on Friday evening with Chief Executive Officer Koji Sato. The event was broadcast live by the Toyota Times, the company’s media apparatus.
“This incident involved cars sold under the Toyota brand, therefore it impacts not only the Daihatsu brand but also that of Toyota,” Toyoda said. “We will investigate the matter to identify the source, ensure driver safety and prevent it from happening again.”
Toyoda said he will personally take responsibility in resolving the matter, and Sato will eventually announce their findings.
In March 2022, another Toyota unit — Hino Motors Ltd. — said it had been sending fabricated emission and fuel economy data to authorities since at least 2016 and that it sold more than 115,000 vehicles certified using fake data.
Toyota group’s production reached a record 10.7 million vehicles worldwide in the fiscal year through March, according to figures released Thursday. Global sales totaled 10.6 million.
(Updates with chairman’s comments from the fifth paragraph.)
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