On February 9, Daihatsu Motors, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, plans to submit a report on test fraud to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on Friday. According to internal sources, Daihatsu has serious operational irregularities in conducting vehicle tests, resulting in artificial exaggeration of fuel efficiency data. This misconduct not only harmed the interests of consumers, but also had a serious impact on Toyota's long-established brand image.
In the financial report released by Toyota Motor on February 6, it was shown that although between April and December 2023, Toyota's net profit reached a staggering 394 trillion yen (about 26.5 billion US dollars), an increase of 107 percent year-on-year9%。This impressive result was mainly due to strong sales of hybrid vehicles. However, due to the impact of the Daihatsu incident, Toyota had to lower its sales forecast for the current fiscal year from its original plan to 9.5 million units, a decrease of 150,000 units from its previous forecast. This adjustment is mainly due to the suspension of shipments of related models affected by Daihatsu Motors.
In fact, since the beginning of this fiscal year, Toyota has been plagued by misconduct by its subsidiaries. Daihatsu Motors, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Co., Ltd., which manufactures small cars, has recently been exposed to fraud in safety tests. Toyota Industries, another member of the Toyota Group, which develops diesel engines for automobiles, was also found to have cheated in certification tests. These two incidents not only plunged Toyota into a whirlpool, but also forced Toyota to suspend the shipment of the affected models in order to deal with possible quality problems.