Toyota's Daihatsu Suspends Operations After Major Scandal

Daihatsu Motor recently announced that it has temporarily suspended all domestic production due to safety inspection fraud affecting its models.

The last factory located in Osaka Prefecture, responsible for assembling the Copen mini-vehicle, ceased operations last Tuesday. According to Daihatsu officials speaking to foreign media, the company, which employs about 9,000 factory workers in Japan, has suspended production at all four of its domestic plants. He further stated that it is not even possible to accurately assess when domestic production can resume.

Daihatsu, a subsidiary of Toyota since 2016, produces 4,000 vehicles per day in Japan and manufactured approximately 870,000 units in the past year alone.

Following a raid by Japan's Ministry of Transport, a third-party investigation uncovered 174 issues across 64 models, with foreign reports indicating concerns about compliance with safety regulations.

The company states that the investigation primarily focuses on airbag control units, and this step was taken due to observed discrepancies between crash test units and those installed in consumer vehicles.

(Source : CNN, Newswire)