Toyota and Daihatsu car models implicated in Malaysia’s fraud scandal make a comeback for sale.

Recently, Malaysia has officially allowed Toyota, Daihatsu, and Perodua car models included in the list of safety inspection fraud by Daihatsu to be resold. Perodua is a local car brand in Malaysia, but it does not produce independent cars as it uses the chassis and components provided by Daihatsu, so it also affected by the recent safety inspection fraud scandal.

Prior to that, Indonesia also gave the green light for the affected car models to continue production and distribution in the country, just a few days after the shocking car scandal was exposed. Daihatsu is the second best-selling brand in the Indonesian market, after its parent company Toyota. Key car models in this market such as Avanza, Rush, Agya, and Calya are all under Toyota and Daihatsu. Therefore, the Indonesian government wants to quickly resolve the issue to minimize losses for the domestic car market.

Meanwhile, other countries including Vietnam are still waiting for safety inspections results before making a final decision on the distribution of affected car models. The car model that is currently suspended from sales in Vietnam is the manual transmission version of Toyota Avanza. However, Toyota Vietnam confirmed that the automatic transmission version of Avanza and other Toyota car models developed by Daihatsu such as Wigo, Veloz, and Yaris Cross are not affected by the safety scandal and continue to be distributed as usual.

In its home country of Japan, Daihatsu has halted all production processes due to the safety inspection fraud scandal. This greatly affects the company as the domestic market currently accounts for about 60% of its car sales. According to Nikkei Asia, Daihatsu is estimated to lose 100 billion yen (172 trillion VND) due to the suspension of production plans as well as compensation for suppliers’ damages.

Not only that, the Japanese government has also launched an investigation into Daihatsu to clarify the misconduct that has been going on for decades. The revocation of production licenses is also a possible penalty. This will make Daihatsu face many difficulties and even its parent company Toyota will be significantly affected.

Daihatsu reported a total operating profit of 141.8 billion yen in 2022 (over 24 trillion VND). If the impact of the scandal pushes the total profit into negative territory, this will be the first time in 30 years that the company records a net loss in a financial year.

Similar scandals in recent years have caused significant damage to other Japanese car manufacturers. Hino Motors reported a net loss of 117.6 billion yen (equivalent to over 20 trillion VND) in the 2022 financial year after being discovered falsifying data on emissions and fuel efficiency. Mitsubishi Motors recorded a net loss of 198.5 billion yen (over 34 trillion VND) in the 2017 fiscal year due to a fuel efficiency data falsification scandal.

Thái Sơn (Tuoitrethudo)