Production at all Japanese factories of car manufacturer Daihatsu has been halted until at least January, as a result of an extensive crash testing scandal. The company, part of the Toyota group, reported this during the Christmas holidays.
Last week, external research revealed that Daihatsu had been cheating on safety tests since 1989. Daihatsu had initiated that investigation after indications of tampering emerged in April.
After the results were announced, Japanese authorities raided the headquarters in Osaka last week. Toyota announced that it will no longer sell Daihatsu’s for the time being (no Daihatsu’s have been sold in Europe since 2011).
During the holidays, Toyota has now also decided to stop production in Japan for the time being. The various Daihatsu factories in that country produce around one million cars every year. The small cars are very popular in their home country, just like in countries such as Indonesia.
The production stop, which is expected to last throughout January, may also have consequences for other brands. For example, Daihatsu usually supplies many parts to Mazda and Subaru, reported financial news agency Bloomberg.
‘Unusualities’
The investigation showed, among other things, that different airbags were used during crash tests than the airbags that were later installed in the cars. It is possible that some models are “not in compliance” with the legislation, Toyota said in a statement. A total of 174 ‘unusual features’ were found in 64 different models.
Presenting the external investigation, which was conducted by TÜV Rheinland Japan, lead investigator Makoto Kaiama provided some insight into a possible cause behind the scandal. According to Kaiama, “supervisors at manufacturing sites were under such enormous pressure to deliver good results that there was no room to communicate problems to superiors.” Kaiama called it problematic that upper management had never received signals of these problems and the fraud.
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Toyota announced last week that it will examine the entire organization at Daihatsu. The industrial group, together with Volkswagen the largest car manufacturer in the world, acquired Daihatsu in 2016.
This is the second time in a relatively short time that Toyota has been discredited due to a fraud scandal. In 2022, it was announced that Hino Motors, Toyota’s truck division, had tampered with emissions data. That fraud went back to 2003.