President to tackle issues
Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corporation, has pledged to improve the company’s recall process after regulators punished it for covering up information and being too slow to call back more than 10 million vehicles in 2009 and 2010. General Motors now faces similar scrutiny for its handling of flawed ignition switches it knew of as early as 2001 and has been linked to at least 13 deaths, reports Bloomberg, while shares in Toyota fell by as much as 4.9 per cent in Tokyo trading after the latest announcement. Toyoda has instituted a three-year freeze on new car plants so it can prioritise quality and efficiency after recalls in 2009-2010 for problems linked to unintended acceleration. Following the crisis, Toyota said it improved procedures that had been too dependent on decision-making in Japan and didn’t give regional operations the autonomy to make fixes. The marque also formed a global quality group chaired by Toyoda. Toyota agreed to pay US$1.2 billion last month to end an investigation into its attempt to deflect safety defects. It was the largest criminal penalty imposed on a carmaker in America. The company admitted wrong-doing and submitted to reviews by an independent monitor to assess its reporting practices. These latest global recalls for Toyota follow on from the recall of 1.9 million Prius hybrids in February. That covered more than half of the models sold since its debut 17 years ago. The company said it would update software to fix glitches that could cause the cars to lose power or come to a halt. The recalls haven’t slowed down earnings. Toyota has forecast profit for the year ending March 31 surging to a record US$18.6b. It has set a target of selling an unprecedented 10.32 million vehicles this year after leading GM and Volkswagen in global automotive deliveries for a second straight year in 2013. Toyota has declined to say how much the latest recalls will cost and it’s unclear if the faults stemmed from its suppliers or its manufacturing process. “We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience and concern brought by this recall announcement,” it says.
