Toyota has also decided to temporarily halt shipments of affected models, after both companies received the investigation results of an independent third-party committee regarding procedural irregularities in vehicle safety tests.
At press time, it is not known how and if this will affect the production and sales of Toyota and Perodua vehicles in Malaysia.
In a statement, Toyota Motor Corp (TMC) said the investigation found new irregularities in 174 items within 25 test categories, in addition to the door lining irregularity in April and the side collision test irregularity in May.
These encompassed a total of 64 models and 3 engines of vehicles (total of models currently being produced, developed, or ceased in production), including 22 models and 1 engine being sold by Toyota.
"We would like to express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience and concern this has caused to all stakeholders, including customers," said TMC.
TMC pointed out that it recognises the extreme gravity of the fact that Daihatsu's neglect of the certification process has shaken the very foundations of the company as an automobile manufacturer.
"Since 2013, Toyota has been increasing the number of OEM models it receives from other companies, mainly compact vehicles. We deeply regret that the development of these vehicles may have been a burden on Daihatsu and that we were not aware of the situation with the company's certification operations," said TMC.
"We believe in order to prevent recurrence, in addition to a review of certification operations, a fundamental reform is needed to revitalize Daihatsu as a company. This will be an extremely significant task that cannot be accomplished overnight," added TMC.
In another statement, Daihatsu Motor Co Ltd said the affected models included both Daihatsu brand vehicles and models supplied as OEM models to TMC, Mazda Motor Corp, and Subaru Corp.
Meanwhile, the independent third-party committee identified the true cause of the irregularities to be “management's promotion of short-term development without taking measures to address the irregularities.”
The committee made suggestions to prevent recurrence, including “senior management expressing remorse to employees and showing commitment to remedying the situation” and a “review of development and certification processes in rigid ‘short-term developments.’”
Daihatsu said its management had overlooked the workload caused by the increase in development projects since 2013 that were carried out on a short-term schedule and "left an environment in which the frontline could not ask for help when they needed it."
"As a result, we believe that a corporate culture was formed in which project promotion was given top priority and regulations and rules were not observed. We take this very seriously and believe that the entire responsibility lies with management," said Daihatsu.
Toyota: List of models affected by newly found irregularities
TMMIN: PT Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia
ASSB: Assembly Services Sdn. Bhd.
TMT: Toyota Motor Thailand Co., Ltd.
TMV: Toyota Motor Vietnam Co., Ltd.
ADM: PT Astra Daihatsu Motor
PMSB: Perodua Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd.
PGMSB: Perodua Global Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd.
Daihatsu: List of models with newly irregularities found
