Toyota Suspends Shipments of Diesel Engine Land Cruiser, Hiace, Hilux Over Data Fraud (Update1)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:44 JST, January 29, 2024 (updated at 17:47 JST)

Toyota Industries Corp. announced Monday that fraudulent performance tests for engine emissions were also conducted on its diesel engines. The fraud also extended to industrial vehicle engines used in construction machinery.

The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry has decided to conduct on-site inspections at the Toyota Group company’s plant in Hekinan, Aichi Prefecture.

Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to suspend worldwide shipments of 10 models that are equipped with the affected engines. Of these, six models, including the Hiace, Land Cruiser, and Hilux, are distributed in Japan.

Toyota Industries announced last March that it had engaged in fraudulent activities such as replacing data in performance tests of forklift truck engines. The company has suspended domestic shipments of forklift trucks equipped with these engines, and the transport ministry revoked the type certification of two models of engines manufactured by the company.

Toyota Industries was founded in 1926 to manufacture and sell the Type G automatic loom invented by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of the Toyota Group. The company now manufactures machinery, including engines, electronic devices and industrial vehicles such as forklifts, in addition to automobile vehicles.