Japan orders ‘drastic reforms’ after new Toyota certification violations

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The Japanese government ordered Toyota Motor on Wednesday to make “drastic reforms” after discovering new violations in the automaker’s vehicle certification procedures.

 

In a corrective order, the transport ministry revealed widespread, intentional misconduct and irregularities in seven additional models that had not been previously disclosed. The order instructed Toyota to “make drastic reforms to ensure appropriate certification operations.” Toyota stated it was in the process of confirming compliance with requirements for the affected models and reassured customers that they did not need to stop using the vehicles.

 

Earlier this month, Toyota announced it had not found any new cases of wrongdoing in car model certification applications beyond the ones it had already reported in June. Toyota and four other vehicle makers confessed in June that they had submitted flawed or manipulated data when applying for certification of vehicles. Toyota’s wrongdoing involved three production models – the Corolla Fielder, Corolla Axio, and Yaris Cross – as well as discontinued versions of four other models, including one sold under the luxury Lexus brand.

 

Toyota planned to resume production for these models from the beginning of September after the transport ministry confirmed they met compliance requirements. The investigation was conducted after the transport ministry ordered industry-wide checks of certification practices following a safety test scandal at Toyota’s Daihatsu compact car unit. The ministry stated that six of the seven additional Toyota models with irregularities were also certified in other countries, and it had alerted overseas authorities about the issues.

 

Four of the additional models – a minivan sold under the names of Noah and Voxy, and the RAV4, Harrier, and Lexus LM – are still in production by Toyota, while three are no longer manufactured.

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