Toyota stops shipment of 10 vehicle models over manipulated engine data

Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The Toyota Motor Corp. said it has stopped shipments of engines for 10 vehicle models that had their output data manipulated on Monday.

Toyota said one of its affiliates, the Toyota Industries Corp., learned of the falsified information during an investigation of the diesel engines it was manufactures and supplies for the parent company.

The automaker said the "irregularities" happened in the horsepower output testing for three diesel engine models used in 10 different automobiles where TICO used software that was not consistent with mass production to make the results "appear smoother with less variation."

The affected models include the Land Cruiser 300, Hilux, Forerunner and Innova, which were sold in Japan, Europe, the Middle East and other markets.

Toyota said the affected engines were found to meet output standards in subsequent tests so the engines and vehicles can still be used.

"However, We deeply apologize to our customers who have been supporting affected vehicles and waiting for a long time, and also to all other stakeholders for the significant inconvenience and concerns this has caused," Toyota said in a statement.

It noted that TICO would suspend shipments of the affected engines and Toyota would suspend shipments of vehicles using the engines on a temporary basis.

"Going forward, we will provide detailed explanations to the authorities and promptly proceed with appropriate measures, including conducting testing in the presence of witnesses if appropriate," Toyota said.

Toyota found that data was skewed stretching back as far as 2017.

"We feel deeply responsible for the misconduct, which persisted for a long time, and for failing to discover and rectify it," Toyota Industries President Koichi Ito said during a press conference.

The scandal is just the latest to hit Toyota in recent months. One of Toyota's main subsidiaries, Daihatsu, which supplies cars and parts to the auto giant as well as Mazda and Subaru, was involved in a safety test scandal in December.

Daihatsu's company was raided by the government after authorities discovered evidence it had manipulated the results of collision-safety tests as late 1989 with the practice exploding in 2014.