TOKYO: Toyota subsidiary, Daihatsu, announced on Wednesday that it would halt exports of all automobile models that are presently being manufactured, both domestically in Japan and overseas, in the wake of fresh information exposing its rigging of safety testing.
“Daihatsu decided today to temporarily suspend shipments of all Daihatsu-developed models currently in production, both in Japan and overseas,” the auto-titan said in a statement following a report by an independent panel.
The panel was established earlier this year to investigate a safety scandal that initially emerged in April.
Toyota said the investigation “found new irregularities in 174 items within 25 test categories, ” in addition to wrongdoing already detected in April and May about door parts and side-collision tests.
The number of car models linked to wrongdoing now totals 64, including 22 sold by Toyota.
Toyota said that with certification being a “major prerequisite” for an automobile manufacturer to conduct business, “we recognize the extreme gravity” of Daihatsu’s neglect, which has “shaken the very foundations of the company as an automobile manufacturer.”
In its statement, Daihatsu offered its “deep apologies” for “betraying the trust of our customers and stakeholders.”
Toyota and Daihatsu said they were unaware of any accidents from the falsification, but “thorough technical verification” is underway. —APP
