Toyota scandals mount with new problems at another group company | Automotive News Europe

Oct 19, 2024

Toyota has suspended shipments of several vehicles including the Land Cruiser 300 model (pictured).

TOKYO – Toyota suspended shipments of 10 more nameplates on Monday after another case of inappropriate product testing was found at a group company supplying engines.

The latest problems, this time involving product certification at Toyota Industries, follows earlier testing scandals at Toyota minicar maker Daihatsu and truck affiliate Hino Motors.

Toyota said it would suspend shipments of several vehicles equipped with diesel engines supplied by Toyota Industries. The nameplates include the Toyota Hiace van, Hilux and Fortuner SUVs and Innova MPV, as well as the Land Cruiser 300 and Lexus LX 500d SUVs.

The temporary suspensions are another embarrassing discovery for the world’s largest automaker, as it continues to grapple with similar problems at Daihatsu and Hino.

The revelation comes just a day before Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda plans to announce a new global vision for his automaker and its constellation of affiliates, known collectively as the Toyota Group.

“We recognize the gravity of the fact that the repeated certification irregularities at TICO, following those at Daihatsu, have shaken the very foundations of the company as an automobile manufacturer,” Toyota said in a statement.

TICO stands for Toyota Industries Corp.

“Restructuring the relevant business will require a change in the mindset of all individuals, from management to employees, as well as a drastic reform of corporate culture,” Toyota said.

More scandals

Late last year, Daihatsu was forced to suspend shipment of all models, including some supplied to Toyota, Subaru and Mazda for sale under those brands, after the fully owned minicar subsidiary was found to have faked side collision impact data.

An independent investigation found Daihatsu had rigged the safety tests on 64 nameplates, some two dozen sold by Toyota.

Daihatsu’s cheating stretched back three decades. Toyota has said it is unaware of any accidents tied connected to the rigged testing, which centered around the cars’ airbag control units.

The Daihatsu safety scandal continues to fester, with Japanese authorities on Jan. 26 revoking approval for Daihatsu to produce three commercial vehicles in Japan. That was the third such instance of Japan’s transport ministry rescinding so-called type approval for Daihatsu models.

In 2022, Hino was embroiled in misconduct after it came to light that employees had been fudging emissions tests on engines used in more than 600,000 vehicles as far back as 2003.

Toyota holds a 25 percent stake in Toyota Industries and fully owns Daihatsu.

Toyota took a controlling stake in Hino in 2001 and holds 50.2 percent. But last year, as the truckmaker was digging out from the emissions scandal, Toyota announced plans to merge Hino with Daimler-owned heavy truck rival Mitsubishi Fuso to jointly develop truck technologies.

Toyota and Daimler said they want to finish details on the agreement early this year.

Rattled group

The Toyota Group is an alliance of more than a dozen companies, many of which have cross-shareholdings and intertwined corporate histories.

The group includes mega-suppliers Denso and Aisin, as well as such stallwart Toyota suppliers as Toyota Boshoku, JTEKT and Toyoda Gosei. But other companies deal in diverse products and industries ranging from boats, industrial machines and forklifts to semitrucks, housing and real estate.

In recent months, the companies have begun to sell off crossholdings in each other to generate funds to reinvest in new technologies such as electrification, software and digitalization.

In the Toyota Industries’ engine case, none of the affected vehicles are sold in North America. Affected destination markets include Europe, Japan, mainland Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Toyota did not say how many vehicles were affected or detail when shipments might resume.

Toyota Industries certified the diesel engines by using engine control unit software that was different from the mass-production version. The purpose was to smooth out measurements of the engines’ horsepower performance to it would appear to have less variance, Toyota said.

Toyota said it has re-verified its mass-produced vehicles and has confirmed that the engine performance meets the company standards. It says there is no need to stop using vehicles equipped with the engines that are already on the road.

Toyota Industries is perhaps best known as a manufacturer of forklifts.

As part of the Jan. 29 revelations, Toyota Industries announced it had discovered six engine models for forklifts and one for construction machinery had violated certain domestic testing rules, including those for durability.

That comes on top of violations found in March 2023 in three forklift engines and one engine for construction machinery.

Shipments of those were suspended last year, and Toyota Industries said it would suspend shipments of the newly identified engines, and forklifts using them, as well.

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