Toyota battled yesterday to seize back the initiative over a worldwide rash of safety recalls as the Japanese automaker, heading into a showdown in US Congress, grappled with US criminal subpoenas.
Company president Akio Toyoda, who faces a grilling by US lawmakers today, said Toyota must do much better in responding to safety issues but pledged his commitment to “building the safest vehicles in the world.”
The world’s biggest carmaker has pulled more than 8 million vehicles over accelerator and brake problems and faces class-action lawsuits potentially costing billions of dollars that link its defects to more than 30 deaths.
Despite the major recalls since last month, Toyota reported that its global sales that month rose 15.3 percent on-year to 537,454 cars, buses and trucks, while worldwide production jumped 55.8 percent to 643,925 units.
The sales rebound was a ray of good news for the company, now embroiled in the worst crisis of its 70-year history, although analysts warned it will feel the brunt of the bad publicity, stopped sales and production halts next month.
“It may be difficult for Toyota to keep up the trend come February and beyond,” SMBC Friend Research Center auto analyst Shigeru Matsumura said, adding that sluggish US sales may dent the company’s outlook.
Earlier this month, Toyota said that although it expects a profit for the full year, it would burn US$2 million in earnings amid the recall crisis.
The company revealed on Monday it had been subpoenaed in a US criminal investigation of its handling of the mass recalls, and had received a similar demand for documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Japanese government, meanwhile, said yesterday it would review the country’s automotive and other product recall systems to strengthen consumer protection following Toyota’s global safety recalls.
“There is a possibility Toyota did not inform us about every small piece of information,” Japanese Transport Minister Seiji Maehara said.
A contrite Toyoda, writing in the Wall Street Journal, said: “I recognize that we must do better — much better — in responding to safety issues.”
He said that “in recent years we didn’t listen as carefully as we should — or respond as quickly as we must — to our customers’ concerns.”
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