Impact Of Diesel Machine Manipulation Scandal, Toyota Extends Production Of Two Factories Until March 1

Land Cruiser Prado. (Doc. Global Toyota)

Toyota started in 2024 with the issue of diesel engine certification involving several of its models. Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO), which is responsible for the development of diesel engines, announced the postponement of vehicle production as an impact.

The latest news shows that the Japanese manufacturer has extended the closure of two production lines at its two factories until March 1.

Reporting from Reuters on Monday, February 26, this production line has been suspended since January 29 after a deviation was found in a diesel engine certification test developed by TICO. The decision to reopen the production line will be taken by the manufacturer on March 1, with the possibility of reopening on March 4.

The suspension of production will continue on a line at Toyota Auto Body's Inabe plant in Mie Prefecture, Alphard and Vellfire model assembly, as well as another route at Gifu Auto Body in Gifu Prefecture, which is HiAce's production site.

Previously, a special investigative committee led by Hiroshi Inoue had been tasked with investigating possible irregularities to regulations related to domestic emission certification that turned out to be incompatible with forklifts and construction vehicles.

The results of the investigation show that irregularities occurred during energy output testing on the certification of three diesel engine models for cars developed by Toyota and assigned to TICO. Certification testing using ECU with software that is different from those used in mass production, thus requiring certification.

Ten vehicles around the world, including six of them from Japan, are reportedly using this problematic engine. However, the manufacturer confirmed that the affected engines and vehicles still meet established engine performance standards.

As a precaution, Toyota decided to temporarily stop sending affected machines and delay sending vehicles equipped with the powertrain.

There are three types of machines affected, ranging from 1GD used in the Land Cruiser Prado, HiAce, Hino Dyna, Hilux, to Fortuner models produced by Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia (TMMIN). In addition, 2GD and F33A machines were also affected, used in the Hilux, Innova, Land Cruiser 300, and Lexus LX500d models.