Several Japanese automakers have been caught faking certification tests, and Toyota may be the worst offender.
Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) reported yesterday that its ongoing investigation into 85 domestic manufacturers, including several automakers, had found that most were acting within the law, but not Mazda, Yamaha, Honda or Suzuki.
The four investigated their operations under orders from the MLIT, found falsifications of type approval applications and were “found guilty of fraud”, the ministry said. The offending companies have been ordered to suspend shipments of vehicles whose certification tests were falsified and to correct their defects as soon as possible.
Mazda was found to have rewritten its engine control software to influence production testing, while Yamaha and Honda both submitted fake noise tests. Suzuki lied about brake system test results, and Mazda also falsified crash tests.
And then there’s Toyota
Of the five major Japanese automakers caught in the scam, only one – Toyota – is still under investigation. No stranger to being caught in a lie, the automaker has gone into full apology mode.
Toyota released its own detailed statement to further explain what MLIT reported as “submitting false data in pedestrian protection tests for three currently produced vehicles” and “falsifying crash test vehicles for four previously manufactured vehicles”. The lies actually served consumers’ interests, Toyota claimed.
Toyota said it found six cases among those seven models “where testing methods differed from standards set by national authorities,” but stressed that none of the vehicles involved are unsafe.
Shinji Miyamoto, head of Toyota’s Customer First Promotion Group, said that in most cases “more severe test conditions” were used and their data provided to the government was above and beyond what was strictly required by law . In one example, a heavier moving barrier was used to test fuel leakage from the rear crash than required by law, resulting in a greater impact.
Toyota also failed to distinguish between the passenger and driver sides when reporting pedestrian head and leg injuries in a side crash, and in another case Toyota presented data on luggage displacement hazards using an old luggage test block out of order. Finally, Toyota failed to achieve the engine’s target power in a test, and instead of stopping it to fix the issues as requested, “the engine control system was adjusted … and the retested data was used for certification, Miyamoto said.
Toyota added: “We carried out internal verifications on all cases and confirmed that they all meet legally defined standards and can therefore be used safely by our customers,” Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda said of the vehicles. affected.
“However, these acts shake the very foundations of the certification system and as a car manufacturer, we believe that they are acts that should never be carried out”, added the chairman. “As the person responsible for the Toyota Group, I would like to offer my sincere apologies … I am truly sorry.”
Toyota said the tests affected its 2014 model year Crown vehicles and the 2015 model year Isis, Sienta, Crown and Lexus RX vehicles, none of which are no longer in production. Current vehicles caught up in the mess include the Corolla Axio and Corolla Fielder as well as the Yaris Cross, whose production has been suspended in Japan.
It is not clear how many vehicles were sold with false certificates, or if any were distributed outside of Japan. Toyota vehicles in the US, where the models overlap, are not affected, we’re told.
“Issues identified by [Toyota Motor Corporation] are based on a review of past certifications for Japanese requirements,” said a Toyota North American spokesman. registry. “Vehicles sold in North America are certified using different processes and to different standards applicable in North American markets.”
Toyota was caught earlier this year falsifying certification tests for its diesel engines by rewriting engine performance software to miscalculate the results, at VW, and in 2022 the company’s heavy vehicle division Hino admitted it had falsified similar results since 2003.
Toyota Apologetic chairman Toyoda stressed that the investigation was ongoing (as was the MLIT, which said “only the misconduct that has been discovered so far is listed”), but said he believed the company was now was moving in the right direction regarding the right-hand drive of automobile regulators.
“These efforts will have to be sustained and will take time, but I’m going to [factory floor] myself and take responsibility for their progress,” Toyoda added. ®