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.”
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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