In May 2023, Daihatsu, Toyota’s subsidiary company, announced that it would cease the sale, pre-order, registration, and delivery of the hybrid versions of the Toyota Raize and Daihatsu Rocky models in the Japanese market. This decision came after abnormalities were discovered in the side collision testing process.
Five months later, these two A-segment SUV models are still not available for purchase in the domestic market. As a result, Toyota has canceled the pre-orders for the Toyota Raize HEV and Daihatsu Rocky HEV placed by customers in Japan.
According to reports in the Japanese press, around 30,000 orders for the Toyota Raize HEV have been canceled, while the Daihatsu Rocky HEV has seen about 5,000 canceled orders.
Toyota has offered affected customers the option to choose another model as a replacement for their canceled orders. However, Daihatsu does not have any other model within its product range that can replace the Rocky HEV.
As previously reported, Daihatsu’s scandal involves the side collision testing against a pole (UN-R135). According to regulations, the company is required to conduct collision tests on both the left and right sides of the vehicle and submit test data for both sides. However, Daihatsu only performed collision tests on the driver’s side (left side) and submitted data for the left side only. In total, 78,440 vehicles have been affected, including 22,329 Daihatsu Rocky HEV and 56,111 Toyota Raize HEV.
Toyota Raize HEV and Daihatsu Rocky HEV
By the end of May 2023, Daihatsu conducted in-house collision tests for these two hybrid models at the Shiga Technical Center in Japan. The tests confirmed the safety of the Toyota Raize HEV and Daihatsu Rocky HEV. However, since then, neither model has been reintroduced to the Japanese market.
“This is only Daihatsu’s in-house test and has not been confirmed by regulatory agencies. In order to continue delivering vehicles to dealerships and selling them in the market, we will conduct tests for both the Daihatsu Rocky HEV and Toyota Raize HEV in the presence of regulatory agencies. We will also perform the necessary procedures, such as confirming other certification categories and consulting with regulatory agencies,” explained Daihatsu.
This is not the first safety testing scandal involving Daihatsu this year. In April 2023, the company admitted to manipulating side collision tests for over 88,000 vehicles, primarily the Toyota Vios (known as Yaris Ativ in the Thai market) and the Perodua Axia (also sold as the Toyota Agya in Indonesia and Wigo in Vietnam).
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