by Toyota said it has arrested global shipments of 10 vehicles after discovering that a subsidiary had mismanaged testing of diesel engines used in cars, the latest embarrassing problem to hit the world’s largest automaker in recent months.
A Toyota subsidiary used software to measure horsepower output that made “the values appear smoother and with less variation,” parent company Toyota said in a statement. The vehicles “meet engine power standards” and there is no need to stop using the engines or vehicles, the company said.
Even so, Toyota decided to stop marketing the 10 models that use three diesel engines in question. Among the models that will be temporarily closed are the popular Hilux pickup truck and the Land Cruiser 300 SUV. Toyota did not say how many vehicles were affected.
In December, Toyota was rocked by a series of recalls and production shutdowns. First, it recalled about 1 million vehicles in the United States due to an airbag problem. It then reported that Japan’s government was investigating Daihatsu, the subsidiary, for safety problems dating back decades.
Daihatsu said it would halt shipments of all its models due to irregularities in safety inspections. Last week, he said he was recalling 320,000 Daihatsu vehicles and was not yet ready to reopen its production facilities.
Toyota said it understood “the severity” of the two back-to-back testing issues that “have shaken the very foundation of the company as an automaker.”
Japanese auto companies face their biggest business challenge since they became global giants in the 1980s. Toyota, which in the 1970s became a leader in efficiency in automobile manufacturing, has failed to keep up with the changing consumer preferences and with the push by governments around the world to greatly reduce the burning of fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change. Last year, China supplanted Japan as the world’s largest automobile exporter.
