Chairman Toyoda apologized and vowed to right the ship, but as the world’s largest automaker in 2023, Toyota is unlikely to have to change much
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Officials representing Japan’s transportation authority raided a Toyota-affiliated plant on Tuesday, shortly after the automaker admitted to wrongdoing in certification tests for certain diesel engines.
The automaker admitted yesterday that it tested certain engines using different ECU settings than it had sold them with. Toyota said that although it had cheated on the tests, it had only done so to smooth out horsepower ratings and that this issue had no impact on the engines’ emissions certification status.
Despite fessing up and apologizing, Toyota was not spared an official investigation, reports the Associated Press. The automaker said it had re-verified the engines, and that they still met regulatory standards, but it was halting production of the engines and would allow officials to sit in on certification tests.
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More: Toyota Stops Deliveries Of Land Cruiser, Hilux And More Over Irregular Diesel Engine Testing
Toyota also said that it would pause deliveries of 10 models that used the diesel engines in question. Destined for Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the affected vehicles include the Land Cruiser 300, the Hilux, the Lexus LX500d, and others.
The company’s chairman, Akio Toyoda, also apologized for the testing irregularities and vowed to steer the company in the right direction. However, it was under his watch that this unfolding scandal, and a pair of others emerging from Toyota subsidiaries, were allowed to fester.
Last April, a whistleblower revealed that Daihatsu, which is entirely owned by Toyota, had cheated on its safety tests for decades. In 2022, another Toyota-owned company, Hino, revealed that it had been cheating on emissions tests since 2003.
While those form a mounting case against the chairman and the company’s senior management (who are accused of pushing aggressive development plans and failing to listen to workers), it will likely be viewed as a mole hill when compared to the automaker’s sales results.
In addition to announcing the testing irregularities, Toyota also reported that it sold 11.22 million vehicles in 2023, up 7 percent from 2023, making it the world’s biggest automaker by a wide margin.
