Companies

Daihatsu Resumes Production at All Plants in Japan

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Employees of Daihatsu Motor Co. head to plant in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, to resume operation on Monday.

Jiji Press

12:26 JST, May 7, 2024

IKEDA, Osaka (Jiji Press) — Daihatsu Motor Co. on Tuesday resumed production at its plant in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, after suspending operations from late December last year due to its safety test fraud scandal.

All of Daihatsu’s four finished vehicle assembly plants in Japan are back online for the first time in about four months. The subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corp. will speed up the delayed delivery of vehicles for which it has received orders, as well as the improvement of existing models and the development of new models.

In February, Daihatsu, headquartered in Ikeda, started resuming production in stages for models confirmed safe by the transport ministry.

At the plant in Ikeda, the company will manufacture the Copen minivehicle and a model of the same name for Toyota.

Even after the resumption of operations at all of its domestic plants, Daihatsu’s production is expected to be less than 80% of the level in fiscal 2022, before the scandal came to light, partly due to delays in the introduction of new models.