Toyota Is in the Eye of the Storm: The Company Acknowledges That It Sold 14 Models With Fake Safety Tests Over the Last Decade

We first learned about the scandal at the end of 2023. That's when the Japanese government accused Daihatsu, a company owned by Toyota, of falsifying safety tests for three decades. This meant that the company had spent a quarter of its century-long history deceiving customers.

Daihatsu had minimal presence in the U.S. and eventually left the American market in 2005. It’s a similar story in Europe, where it stopped selling cars in 2013 due to poor sales. In 2023, the company publicly admitted its fault. Daihatsu CEO Soichiro Okudaira took responsibility and apologized, stating, “We betrayed the trust of our customers. All the blame is on the management.”

However, the situation took a turn for the worse in June when Toyota itself became implicated. According to authorities, up to seven models from the Japanese company had employed false safety tests to obtain regulatory approval. “I would like to sincerely apologize to our customers, to car fans, and all stakeholders for this,” Toyota president Akio Toyoda said in his apology statement.

Subsequent investigations revealed that as many as seven models were affected by the scandal. While some models, such as the Toyota Yaris Cross, were still in production, the company clarified that the European and U.S. markets weren’t affected because the vehicles weren’t identical.

It’s now evident that this controversy is far from over.

Seven Other Models Under Investigation

After discovering safety issues, Japanese authorities have been investigating whether other Toyota models may have obtained approvals through fraudulent safety tests.

They suspect that seven other models may have benefited from falsified tests. Some of these models are no longer in production, while others, like the Toyota RAV4, are still being manufactured.

In a statement issued on July 31, Toyota admitted that errors occurred due to unclear internal operating rules and a lack of involvement from certification authorities, among other reasons. The new investigation revealed problems in the SUV mentioned earlier, as well as in the Lexus LM and other models currently in production. The 2014 Toyota Prius in Europe is also believed to be affected.

Toyota has assured the public that it promptly notified authorities in the markets where these cars were sold, ensuring that necessary measures were taken to correct the errors. The company temporarily stopped production to modify the affected parts, but production has now resumed. Toyota emphasized that users can continue to use their vehicles safely.

The Japanese government has criticized the company. “We found irregularities that were extensive and intentional,” an official told Bloomberg. As a result, 90 companies have been scrutinized by Japanese authorities to prevent such incidents from happening again.

This article was written by Alberto de la Torre and originally published in Spanish on Xataka.

Image | Toyota

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