AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/03 Report--

Toyota Industrial Corp. (TICO) reported to Toyota Motor Co., which commissioned TICO to develop diesel engines for cars, that it had received a report from a special investigation committee, Toyota announced on its website. The committee believes that TICO may have committed irregularities on issues related to emission certification.

The findings of the Special investigation Committee showed that the industrial engines produced by TICO violated Japanese laws and regulations, including the old models used in forklifts and construction machinery, and some automobile engines produced by TICO also violated the rules.

It is understood that there are ten models around the world that use the affected engines, including six in Japan, including Lande Cool Luze, Prado, Hilux, HIACE, Fortuner and so on. In the process of certification testing, the ECU software used to measure the engine horsepower output performance is different from that used in large-scale mass production, which makes the test results look smoother and less variable.

Toyota said it had re-checked the mass-produced products produced at the plant to confirm that the affected engines and vehicles met engine performance output standards. According to the results of the investigation, TICO decided to temporarily suspend shipments of affected engines; Toyota also decided to temporarily suspend shipments of vehicles with affected engines.

It is worth mentioning that not long ago, Toyota subsidiary Dafa Industry also suspended shipments of the models involved due to a fraud scandal.

On December 20, 2023, Japan's Daihatsu released a 162-page third-party investigation report. According to the investigation, in addition to the fake door accessories in April and the rod side collision test in May, 174 cases of fraud were found in 25 new test items, and 64 models and 3 engines were confirmed to be fraudulent, including those that have been discontinued. Also affected by the survey are Toyota Motor Company (hereinafter referred to as "Toyota"), Mazda Motor Company (hereinafter referred to as "Mazda") and Subaru Motor Company (hereinafter referred to as "Subaru"). According to the results of the investigation, Dafa Motor decided to suspend shipments of all Dafa developed models produced in Japan and overseas, and Toyota also decided to suspend shipments of these models. On December 21, 2023, the Ministry of Land and Transport of Japan carried out an incoming inspection on Dafa.

On January 16, Japan's Ministry of Land and Transport announced that it would revoke the safety certification procedures for three Daihatsu vehicles, including Toyota TownAce, Mazda Bongo and Daihatsu Gran Max. At the same time, Saito Tetsuo, Japan's minister of land and transport, issued a rectification order to Soichiro Okudaira, president of Daihatsu Motor, requiring Daihatsu to take measures to prevent such incidents from happening again. On January 19th, Japan's Ministry of Land and Transport said it had confirmed through inspection that Daihatsu had acted improperly on 46 models. Among the 46 models confirmed to have fraudulent practices, except for one model under development, the other 45 models have carried out technical verification such as confirming the conformance of the road transport vehicle law standards and other technical verifications. the test results confirm that five models comply with the road transport vehicle law standards, so the instructions to stop delivery are lifted for these five models. Japan's Ministry of Land and Transport pointed out that other models will also quickly verify benchmark compliance and publish the test results in turn. Japan's Daihatsu Industrial Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Toyota, has submitted an application to Japan's Ministry of Land and Transport for a total of 322740 vehicles of the two models, the Ministry of Land and Transport announced on January 24.

In response to the certification violations in Toyota industry, Toyota said it apologized for the significant inconvenience and concern caused. Next, Toyota will provide the authorities with a detailed explanation and promptly take appropriate measures, including testing in the presence of witnesses, where appropriate.

Next, Toyota will reform the corporate culture, rebuild the TICO and review the situation to ensure product safety and quality assurance, hoping to regain the trust of customers and other stakeholders and become a trusted manufacturer.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat