Japanese truck maker Hino announced on Monday the discovery of additional cases of improper engine testing, this time affecting nearly 96,000 light trucks in Japan, including 19,000 sold under the Toyota brand, its parent company.
The new irregularities, involving endurance testing of a Hino light truck engine, were uncovered by Japan’s Ministry of Transportation following it conducted its own on-site inspections in early August, the company said in a statement. a statement.
Hino has therefore suspended sales of its ‘Dutro’ light truck model equipped with the engine in question and marketed from 2019 in Japan. The company said that nearly 77,000 units in circulation were affected.
The same engine also powers approximately 19,000 units of two other light trucks sold under the Toyota brand. The marketing of one of these two models was also suspended on Monday, the other not having been sold since 2020, Toyota explained in a separate press release.
“As the parent company and shareholder of Hino Motors, we are extremely disappointed that Hino has once once more betrayed the expectations and trust of its shareholders with this revelation of new irregularities,” Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda thundered in the press release from his group.
“We will closely monitor whether Hino can be reborn as a trustworthy company,” Toyoda added, recalling Hino’s previous engine certification irregularities.
In March, Hino admitted to cheating emissions or fuel economy performance tests for several of its heavy-duty and medium-duty engines in Japan.
These bad practices have affected many of the brand’s vehicles for nearly twenty years, Hino then revealed in early August following the conclusions of an external audit.
Hino and Toyota are already targeted in this case by a class action recently launched before the American courts.
Hino shares have collapsed nearly 40% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange since the first revelations of the scandal in early March, and fell another 3.52% on Monday, while Toyota shares ended stable.
/ATS