Toyota Motor’s unprecedented recall of millions of vehicles with faulty accelerators is already taking a toll on its sales and may force it to cut this year’s sales forecasts.
Toyota Motor’s head of quality said he did not know how much it would cost to recall and fix millions of vehicles with faulty accelerators, but acknowledged sales were suffering.
In the first public comment from an executive at Toyota’s head office, executive vice president Shinichi Sasaki said costs were not taken into account with the recall of nearly 4.5 million vehicles equipped with faulty accelerators in North America and Europe.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“The sales forecast is something that we’re extremely worried about,” he told a news conference in the central Japanese city of Nagoya yesterday.
“Already, I am hearing that sales have been affected somewhat in January,” he said, adding that the company would report its third-quarter earnings tomorrow.
On Monday, the world’s biggest automaker detailed its plans to fix the faulty pedals with a small metal shim, or spacer, to prevent them from sticking and causing unintended acceleration.
On top of a separate recall for slipping floormats also linked to unintended acceleration, almost 8 million vehicles worldwide are being recalled.
Toyota, fighting to preserve its reputation for quality, said it would restart production of eight models including its popular Camry, Corolla and Rav4 models on Monday after an unprecedented one-week shutdown at six plants in the US and Canada.
Sasaki, who appeared alone in front of more than 100 reporters, said there had been a bigger-than-usual sales impact from the recall.
Toyota said last month it expected global auto sales to rise 6 percent this year, but has said the forecast did not take the recall impact into account.
Sasaki said they would monitor sales before reviewing this year’s sales forecast.
Toyota president Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company’s founder, has not formally addressed the public or media on the recall problems. While in Davos, Switzerland, last weekend, he appeared briefly on broadcaster NHK and apologized to consumers.
The costs for the recall and the shutdown now look to come to roughly ¥100 billion to ¥200 billion (US$1.1 billion to US$2.2 billion), two analysts estimated.
“It’s a positive that we now can grasp what the direct costs might be, but Toyota has yet to address uncertainties about indirect costs, such as litigation costs and costs of incentives to win back customers,” JP Morgan analyst Kohei Takahashi said.
“The size of these indirect costs is of far greater importance” for Toyota’s future, he said.
Shares in Toyota rallied almost 5 percent in Toyko yesterday following the company’s US announcement on the fix and restart for production. The jump in its shares comes after about an 18 percent tumble over the last seven business days.
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
BOOST IN CONFIDENCE: The sale sends a clear message of support for Taiwan and dispels rumors that US President Donald Trump ‘sold out’ the nation, an expert said The US government on Thursday announced a possible sale to Taiwan of fighter jet parts, which was estimated to cost about US$330 million, in a move that an expert said “sends a clear message of support for Taiwan” amid fears that Washington might be wavering in its attitude toward Taipei. It was the first announcement of an arms sale to Taiwan since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House earlier this year. The proposed package includes non-standard components, spare and repair parts, consumables and accessories, as well repair and return support for the F-16, C-130 and Indigenous Defense Fighter aircraft,
CHECKING BOUNDARIES: China wants to disrupt solidarity among democracies and test their red lines, but it is instead pushing nations to become more united, an expert said The US Department of State on Friday expressed deep concern over a Chinese public security agency’s investigation into Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) for “secession.” “China’s actions threaten free speech and erode norms that have underpinned the cross-strait ‘status quo’ for decades,” a US Department of State spokesperson said. The Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau late last month listed Shen as “wanted” and launched an investigation into alleged “secession-related” criminal activities, including his founding of the Kuma Academy, a civil defense organization that prepares people for an invasion by China. The spokesperson said that the US was “deeply concerned” about the bureau investigating Shen
DISPUTE: A Chinese official prompted a formal protest from Tokyo by saying that ‘the dirty head that sticks itself out must be cut off,’ after Takaichi’s Taiwan remarks Four armed China Coast Guard vessels yesterday morning sailed through disputed waters controlled by Japan, amid a diplomatic spat following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan. The four ships sailed around the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) to Taiwan, and which Taiwan and China also claim — on Saturday before entering Japanese waters yesterday and left, the Japan Coast Guard said. The China Coast Guard said in a statement that it carried out a “rights enforcement patrol” through the waters and that it was a lawful operation. As of the end of last month,
RSS