Toyota halts sales of a car model in Vietnam amid safety scandal

The Toyota Avanza Premio MT variant will temporarily pause sales in the Vietnamese market. Toyota Vietnam has not yet announced the exact date for the re-release of this small-sized MPV model.

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Toyota Avanza Premio is one of the 2 compact MPV models offered by Toyota in the Vietnam market. Photo: TMV.

On the evening of December 21, Toyota Vietnam (TMV) confirmed that the company will temporarily halt the delivery of Avanza Premio cars to customers in Vietnam. This move by TMV comes amid a scandal related to safety testing on a series of small cars from Daihatsu, a subsidiary of the Toyota Group.

Ceasing the sales of Toyota Avanza Premio MT

Specifically, the information from TMV indicates that the company has proactively suspended the delivery of all vehicles related to Daihatsu to dealerships on the afternoon of December 20 to provide additional information to the Vietnamese market. However, after conducting detailed investigations, TMV confirmed that only one affected model, the Avanza Premio manual transmission (MT), will be temporarily discontinued in Vietnam.

Prior to this, an independent third-party committee conducted an investigation on 64 Daihatsu car models in production and development. The final results revealed irregularities in the company’s vehicle certification procedures. In the case of the Toyota Avanza Premio MT, the investigation report indicates abnormalities during the emission and fuel consumption testing.

However, TMV confirmed that the investigation findings showed an inappropriate modification in the Toyota Avanza Premio MT which only occurred during the testing process conducted abroad. In Vietnam, these MPV models adhere to the testing regulations and are certified according to Vietnamese standards.

In its statement, TMV expressed apologies to customers, dealerships, and other stakeholders and stated that they will consider resuming the delivery process for the Avanza Premio MT after receiving information from independent testing and certification agencies in foreign countries.

Toyota Avanza Premio with manual transmission will be indefinitely discontinued. Photo: Toyota Indonesia.

In Vietnam, Toyota Avanza Premio is one of the Toyota models that utilizes the Daihatsu platform. In the first 11 months of the year, Toyota Avanza Premio achieved a sales volume of 3,082 units, placing it behind several competitors in the same segment such as Mitsubishi Xpander (16,931 units), Toyota Veloz Cross (7,648 units), Hyundai Stargazer (3,450 units), and only slightly exceeding the sales volume of MPV models from the Suzuki brand.

Other models continue normal sales operations

For the remaining Toyota models in Vietnam that use the Daihatsu platform – including Toyota Wigo, Toyota Raize, Toyota Veloz Cross, Toyota Yaris Cross, and other Avanza variants – TMV will continue to sell them in the market.

More specifically, TMV stated that Daihatsu has conducted internal technical inspections and tests using real vehicles to verify whether any safety or environmental issues exist with the affected car models.

The inspections and tests have shown that these vehicle models fully comply with the regulations, therefore customers do not need to stop using their vehicles.

For customers who have already received these models at the current stage, TMV confirmed that they can continue using them with confidence.

TMV’s statement also guarantees that the procedures involved in these inspections and tests, as well as the test results, have been confirmed by independent testing agencies. Additionally, the Independent Committee has not identified any non-compliant items in the related vehicle models.

Prior to December 20, Daihatsu – a subsidiary of the Toyota Group – announced the temporary suspension of car transportation activities after the safety scandal was exposed. There are 64 car models related to the incident, with 20 models being sold under the Toyota brand, including 5 models present in Vietnam.

The Toyota scandal is considered the second-largest “trust crisis” in the world, following the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal. Reuters evaluates that this incident could tarnish the reputation of automakers in terms of safety quality.

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