©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Hino Motors logo is pictured at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Japan on October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung Hoon
(Reuters) -Japan’s Toyota Motor (NYSE:) Corp.’s Hino Motors truck and bus division will halt production of some medium and heavy trucks for at least another year following a widespread data falsification scandal, Asia reported on Sunday.
The medium-duty Ranger and heavy-duty Profia truck will not be produced until August 2023, the report added: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Toyota-unit-Hino-to-freeze-truck-production-for -some-models-for-a-year.
The cessation of production of some truck models is the latest sign of the worsening scandal for Hino since it first revealed in March the data falsification affecting some of its larger trucks.
It has since allegedly falsified data on some engines going back to 2003, at least a decade earlier than originally stated. A total of around 640,000 vehicles are affected, more than five times the number originally announced.
Hino said last month it would suspend shipments of pickup trucks after a Department of Transportation investigation found about 76,000 of its pickup trucks sold since 2019 hadn’t undergone the required number of engine tests.
Toyota and others involved in a commercial vehicle partnership have since expelled Hino from the group over falsification of engine data by the truck manufacturer.
The widening scandal at Japan’s Hino Motors over engine data falsification has become a headache that will not go away for parent company Toyota, which holds a 50.1 percent stake in Hino.
Hino became Toyota’s subsidiary in 2001 and almost all Hino presidents have previously worked for Toyota since then.
Toyota did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Hino was not immediately available.
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