(Written by Zhang Jiadong and edited by Zhang Guangkai).
According to Kyodo News 25**, Japan's Daihatsu Motor has successively stopped the operation of all four factories in Japan from now on, and will provide compensation to 423 Japanese domestic ** companies that have direct business relations with it.
Soichiro Okudaira, president of Daihatsu Industries, bowed and apologized at the press conference.
A few days ago, the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) reported that Daihatsu recently announced that a total of 64 models and 3 engines had falsified crash test data, so Daihatsu decided to suspend the shipment of all models in Japan.
According to reports, the second plant in Shiga, which produces the Rocky compact SUV, the Kyoto plant, which produces the Thor, the first plant in Oita, which produces the Hijet Truck, and the second plant in Oita, which produces the Mira e:S, are suspended on the 25th. On March 26, the headquarters plant for the production of the Copen mini vehicle will also be suspended.
According to the report, Daihatsu produces about 4,000 cars in Japan in a single day. Daihatsu has begun individual negotiations to provide compensation for parts buyers who have stopped shipments or caused a decline in revenue.
According to public information, Daihatsu Automobile was founded in Osaka, Japan in 1907 and has been committed to producing small cars for nearly 100 years. In 2016, Daihatsu was acquired 100% by Toyota, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of the latter. Among the top 10 new passenger car sales in the Japanese market, the Daihatsu brand occupies three seats.
As an automaker, Daihatsu is responsible for the production and technological development of small cars within the Toyota Group, and has built Toyota Passo and BB models in Japan, as well as supplying some engines to Toyota.
In the Chinese market, the Tianjin Daihatsu van jointly produced by Tianjin Huali and Daihatsu in 1984 was once a household name, but with the development of the times and the development needs of the group after the merger of FAW and Tianqi, this popular model was officially discontinued in 2002.
However, it was this century-old car company that was submitted to the report by a whistleblower within the company in April this year. The whistleblower expressed concern about untrue tests within the company. After internal verification, Daihatsu found that four models developed for overseas markets were indeed "fake" during side impact tests.
Subsequently, Daihatsu admitted in the 880,000 vehicles were tested for side impact safety with fraud, 64 models had problems, and 20 of them were sold under the Toyota brand.
Akio Toyoda, the chairman of Toyota Motor at the time, once bowed and apologized for the incident: "Daihatsu Motor Company's misconduct involves safety issues, and safety is the most important aspect of the vehicle. We consider this to be an absolutely unacceptable act of betraying the trust of our customers. We apologize for any inconvenience and concern this may cause to our customers, distributors and all parties involved worldwide. ”
At the same time, Toyota will begin to immediately report to the inspection and certification body for vehicles that have been discontinued, and these vehicles will be re-tested in the presence of the inspection and certification body after the replacement of parts, and the side impact performance will be confirmed to meet the regulations before resuming shipments.
However, the investigation found that the airbag control unit used in the crash test of some Daihatsu models was indeed different from that of the commercially available models. The investigation also uncovered 174 new cases of safety testing and other procedural violations in 25 test categories, and members of the investigation team said that workers cheated under pressure from the pressing development cycle to meet management's requirements, and that management should be held accountable.
At a press conference held a few days ago, Daihatsu Industrial President Soichiro Okuhira, Vice President Hiromasa Hoshika, and Toyota Motor Vice President Hiroki Nakajima talked about the responsibilities of Daihatsu's management, tested the background of the fraud, and bowed and apologized. In addition, Akio Toyoda also issued a ** speech again, apologizing to consumers, believing that Daihatsu's problem is "absolutely intolerable".
Daihatsu van.
But behind this intolerable is the endless quality problems and fraud history of Japanese car companies in recent years.
Last year, Hino admitted that the cost of emissions data was still fresh in its mind, and at that time, Day and Night admitted that some large, medium and small trucks had falsified fuel consumption and exhaust emissions tests, which could be traced back to 2003. In total, nearly 640,000 vehicles were affected, more than five times the number originally revealed.
Pushed forward to 2017, Nissan was ** by unqualified technicians to participate in the final inspection of the vehicle, illegal signature and seal. Just a year later, Nissan has once again been exposed to the scandal of "emissions and fuel consumption fraud". Eventually, Nissan Motor held a press conference to admit that employees at five plants in Japan had tampered with data during emissions and fuel economy tests of new vehicles.
In recent years, in the context of the electrification of the automotive industry, the high quality of the industry and products has once again become the focus of market attention.
In the past, Japanese cars once won countless praises and reputations in the global market with their "craftsman spirit", and their global market share was once as high as 27%. However, on top of the successive counterfeiting problems, Japanese cars are undoubtedly constantly overdrawing their painstaking brand image.
According to the statistics of the Passenger Association, from January to November this year, the cumulative sales of Japanese cars in China were 32960,000 units, down 107%。Among the mainstream foreign brands, the decline was the largest.
Today, the consequences of Daihatsu's test fraud are still fermenting, and the fraud and apology again and again are also pulling "Made in Japan" off the altar step by step.
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer.com, and it is not allowed to be unauthorized and shall not be allowed.