AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)08/16 Report--

Japan's Toyota subsidiary Hino Motor emissions and fuel consumption data fraud scandal is simmering again. On Aug. 12, Hino Motors posted on its official website that four American companies sued Hino Motors' American subsidiary and Hino's parent company Toyota Motor for damage caused by the falsification of Hino's engine data. and demanded more than $5 million in compensation. Hino Motors pointed out that it may face more similar lawsuits in the future, and it is not possible to estimate the impact of the litigation.

In 2018, Hino Motors found that the engines of vehicles destined for the North American market did not comply with US regulations, and Hino Motors' trucks in North America officially used Hino Motors' engines made in Japan. So Hino Motor decided to conduct an internal investigation into whether there were any problems with the engine emissions tests at the North American plant. Two years later, Hino admitted that there was a problem with the test process and suspended local truck production in the United States, which did not resume production until last year when it switched to engines from other manufacturers.

After Hino Motors expanded its investigation to include engines in Japan's domestic market after the discovery of engine data fraud in the North American market, the US Justice Department also launched an investigation into Hino Motors. In this context, the plaintiff's four American companies filed a class action on behalf of Hino Motor's local users. According to the latest news from CCTV, the head of Toyota Motor propaganda Department, the parent company of Hino Motor, said he regretted the development of the situation as a class action, but did not make a specific comment.

The wrongdoing was exposed in March when Hino announced that an internal investigation by Hino found engine data fraud in Japanese factories that had lasted for years, affecting as many as 115000 vehicles, twice as many as Hino's annual sales in Japan. Hino believes that engine data fraud can be traced back to 2016 at the earliest. On August 2 this year, Hino officially said that a special investigation committee composed of external lawyers into the fraud of engine exhaust emissions and fuel consumption data exposed on March 4 this year showed that Hino Motor's improper behavior included engine exhaust emission-related violations, fuel consumption data-related violations, and when Japan's Ministry of Land and Transport investigated exhaust emissions and fuel consumption data in 2016. Hino submitted a false report. Among them, Hino car emissions related violations advanced to 2003, earlier than the previously disclosed 2016, that is, Hino car fraud history has lasted nearly 20 years; the investigation also found that around the problem of data fraud, during the previous investigation by Japan's Ministry of Land, Transport, Hino submitted a false report.

On the same day, Japan's Ministry of Land and Transport said that in addition to the report of March 4 this year, there was also misconduct in applying for model designation of engines such as trucks and buses produced in the past, and so on. Therefore, Hino Motor was ordered to recall vehicles with engines that did not meet the emission standards.

Hino shares fell nearly 10% on Aug. 2 after the disclosure. In response to the investigation results, Hino Motor said: "We have carefully listened to the recommendations put forward by the Special investigation Committee and will discuss the establishment of a sound governance system within the company within a period of three months, including the construction of a quality management system." improve the organization, atmosphere and other enterprise systems, strengthen management and supervision functions and related implementation systems. "

At least 560000 of Hino's domestic vehicles are related to faulty engines, after Hino recalled nearly 47000 vehicles made between April 2017 and March this year, and Hino said it would recall another 20900. The fraud scandal also dealt a heavy blow to Hino's production. On March 29 this year, Japan's Ministry of Transport imposed a penalty of "revoking production and sales license" for the existence of data fraud in four engines produced by Toyota's Hino Motors. As a result, all models of Hino except small trucks are currently stopped shipping, accounting for 53% of Hino's domestic sales. This also affected individual bus models of Toyota and Isuzu, two Japanese car companies, after official sources showed that 3000 Toyota buses and 1200 Isuzu buses were affected, resulting in Toyota and Isuzu being ordered to suspend production.

Data show that Hino Motor was founded in 1942, is currently Japan's largest commercial vehicle manufacturing enterprise, with 8583 employees, total assets reached 72.7 billion yen, mainly engaged in truck and bus commercial products business. Before 1942, Hino and Isuzu were the same company. After 1942, Hino Motor became an independent company and formally used the name Hino (Hino). It began to focus on the manufacture of commercial vehicles in 1950. Hino (Hino) is controlled by Toyota in August 2001, and Toyota owns 50.1% of Hino (Hino). After Hino is controlled, Hino jointly launched Japan's first fuel cell bus FCHV-BUS2 in September 2002.

Or hit by successive fraud scandals, Hino Motors has suffered a serious decline in sales and revenue in the last year. According to Toyota's website, Hino Motor sold 155212 vehicles worldwide in 2021, of which 59935 were sold in Japan. At present, domestic sales of large and medium-sized trucks produced by Hino have fallen by half. According to Hino Motors in the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 (April 1 to June 30, 2022), Hino Motor's operating income was 4.316 billion yen, down 73.3% from the same period last year. Hino's net profit was 723 million yen, down 88.6% from the same period last year.

As for whether Hino engine data fraud involves the Chinese market, Hino Motors said that the problem vehicles are not related to the Chinese market for the time being. Earlier, the relevant head of Toyota China pointed out in an interview with the media: "in principle, Toyota and Hino operate independently, and we also pay close attention to this matter, but the main statistics and responses are still done by Hino." Although Toyota and Hino remain independent in brand and operation, Toyota, as the largest shareholder, has actual control and serious fraud on this subsidiary, and Toyota, as the main holding group, may also face a certain degree of impact. so far, it is not clear what impact this incident will have on Toyota.

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