Toyota president lambasts Hino subsidiary

On August 22nd, 2022, after confirming that a widespread data falsification scandal included more Hino truck models than originally stated, Toyota Motor Corporation-owned Hino said that the falsification could involve some 640,000 trucks.

In response to the enormity of this transgression, Toyota president Akio Toyoda bluntly stated:

“As the parent company, as well as a shareholder of Hino Motors Ltd, we are extremely disappointed that Hino has once again betrayed the expectations and trust of its stakeholders with the revelation of a new round of wrongdoings.

“Having continued a number of wrongdoings in the area of engine certification, Hino is now in a situation where it is questioned whether the company will be trusted by its stakeholders.

“Based on this recognition, we will closely watch whether Hino can be reborn as a company worthy of the trust of its stakeholders,” Akio Toyoda concluded.

In all our years of reporting on global corporate affairs, trucksales has never heard a Japanese senior manager – let alone the president of one of world’s largest motor manufacturers – lambast a subsidiary to that extent.

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The Hino emissions scandal was first revealed in March 2022, when the company acknowledged that it had systematically faked data on government mandated tests for compliance with emissions laws and fuel consumption claims.

In response, a group of outside experts was set up to investigate what had occurred.

In a 17-page report, it blamed an ‘inward-looking and conservative culture’ at the company that led to a lack of involvement and solidarity among the employees. The experts said that the company's leadership failed to engage with frontline workers, putting numerical goals and deadlines first and sacrificing operating procedures.

Following this report, Hino Motors admitted it had falsified engine performance data for one of its engines and cheated fuel economy results in two heavy-duty engines. It immediately suspended the sale of five truck and bus models in Japan.

However, that was not to be the end of Hino’s woes. On August 22, 2022, news broke that there was falsified engine test data across a much wider range of Hino models.

That will almost certainly lead to fines from governments in Hino’s export markets and class actions from owners and environmentalists. Based on court rulings from the VW ‘dieselgate’ affair, the outlay for Toyota-Hino will likely be measured in the billions.

Hino president Satoshi Ogiso called a news conference at which he said:

“I am so deeply sorry.

“Unfortunately, misconduct has been carried out for a widespread variety of models.

“Teams that were developing engines knew they couldn’t meet targets and felt so pressured they falsified test results.

“I am determined to see that we are reborn and we carry that out in clear action,” said Ogiso.

In the meantime, Hino Motors will suspend shipments of around 60 per cent of its truck range out of Japan until further notice.

Hino Australia says the only Australian-market models being restricted are the 500 Series Standard Cab truck, fitted with the AO5C engine, and the small-volume Poncho bus.

Following these revelations Hino Motors Limited has been expelled from the Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies Corporation – the body formed in April 2021 to combine the commercial business foundations cultivated by Isuzu Motors Limited and Hino Motors Limited with Toyota’s CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electrified) technologies.

On August 24, CJPTC announced its decision to expel Hino Motors in light of Hino's misconduct concerning certification testing.

Hino’s response was that it took this decision very seriously, issuing the following statement:

‘Throughout our history, we have made a variety of efforts under our motto to help find solutions to social issues,’ the statement reads.

‘However, considering the fact that the misconduct in relation to certification testing has been long-term and widespread, we can only say that we have not even reached our starting point in solving these issues.

‘We first will acknowledge and reflect deeply upon the seriousness of the misconduct we have committed and its root causes, and correct what we should correct.

‘We need to return to our origins as a commercial vehicle manufacturer that helps people and goods get where they need to go, and behave resolutely to become reborn as a company that is once again needed by society.’