Daihatsu stopped production due to falsification of safety tests

From now on, Toyota will have a very ugly black dot in its file thanks to the manufacturer Daihatsu, which has been owned by the Japanese manufacturer for a long time.

Daihatsu is not overly popular in Slovenia and in Europe in general. In 2022, a few more were sold globally. out of a million copies. The numbers were still not encouraging, and the recent findings that they cheated on security tests are also not doing them any favors.

As of Tuesday, they stopped production in all four Japanese factories, including the headquarters in Osaka. The suspension will last at least until the end of January. 9,000 employees are at risk, their fate is currently unknown.

Toyota has responded, saying the scandal has "shaken the foundations of the company." Last week, Daihatsu announced that an independent commission had found evidence of rigged safety tests on as many as 64 vehicle models, including with those sold under the Toyota brand. Therefore, Daihatsu has announced that it will temporarily stop all domestic and international shipments of vehicles and consult with the authorities about further action.

This is the second scandal involving Toyota this year. In April, Daihatsu was found to have breached marketing test standards when increasing its #141; than 88,000 cars, including Toyota models, in Malaysia and Thailand.

At the time, they said in a statement that “the inner trim of the front door was improperly modified during some inspections.” Daihatsu also failed to meet the prescribed requirements in some road-market tests. In May, the car manufacturer announced that it had discovered more irregularities, and revealed that he submitted incorrect data for crash tests of two hybrid electric vehicles. The company announced at the time that it had stopped supplying and selling these models.

The latest investigation further threatens the reputation of the company. A report published by the investigative committee last Wednesday found a further 174 cases of Daihatsu manipulating data, making false statements or improperly tampering with vehicles to pass tests. to obtain a safety certificate.

The first such case was found way back in 1989, and since 2014 the number of cases has only increased. Toyota's shares fell by 4 % last Thursday in Tokyo due to this news, but the company has recovered somewhat in recent days.

The Japanese giant has vowed to transform its subsidiary, saying in a statement last week that “to revive Daihatsu, a thorough reform is needed.” As they wrote, that won't happen overnight. ; and the project will last longer than an hour, maybe even more. year.

Toyota is aware that it cannot afford another scandal. Although the culprit is the subsidiary company, every action of their subsidiaries has a good or bad effect on the parent company. The victim in all this is Toyota's reputation and all employees, who will bear the brunt of the worst-case scenario consequences.