Toyota Vietnam stops selling Avanza MT due to Daihatsu's safety fraud scandal

This morning, December 22, Toyota Vietnam (TMV) responded to VietNamNet about the impact of the vehicle safety inspection fraud scandal of Daihatsu (a Japanese subsidiary) on the Vietnamese market.

Accordingly, TMV said that right after the press conference of parent company Toyota on this issue in Japan, on the afternoon of December 20, TMV proactively stopped transporting all batches of cars related to Daihatsu to dealers to confirm more specific information for the Vietnamese market.

"However, after investigating the details of the above abnormalities, we only stopped delivering one affected model in Vietnam, the Avanza Premio manual transmission (MT) version," TMV said.

According to the investigation results of the Independent Third Party Committee, during the emission and fuel consumption testing abroad, there was an inappropriate modification on the Avanza Premio MT model.

Specifically, "an inappropriate modification" was made by Daihatsu, adjusting the test Avanza to achieve better emissions and fuel consumption results than the actual model sold on the market. Currently, the certification of this model abroad is being reviewed by independent inspection and certification agencies.

"This is an anomaly in terms of vehicle certification procedures abroad. However, in Vietnam, Toyota Avanza Premio models comply with regulations during testing and are certified to meet Vietnamese standards," TMV affirmed. This suspension is understood to be indefinite. In the coming time, TMV will consider resuming the delivery of Avanza Premio MT models after receiving information from independent testing and certification agencies abroad.

For all Toyota Avanza vehicles sold in Vietnam, TMV also said: "At present, all vehicles that have been on the road can continue to be used normally."

There are three reasons given by the company: Based on the premise of reporting to the Independent Committee, first, Daihatsu conducted internal technical inspections and tests of approximately 900,000 approved items for 64 current models (being produced and developed in Japan and overseas), using actual vehicles to re-examine whether there were any safety and environmental issues for the models where abnormalities were detected. The inspections and tests showed that these models met the prescribed standards, and there was no need to stop using the vehicles. Second, the procedures for these inspections and tests as well as the test results were confirmed by the Independent Testing Authority. Third, the Independent Committee did not find any items that were not up to standard.

Speaking to reporters, a Toyota dealer in Hanoi confirmed that the dealer is still selling and delivering cars to customers for models received before December 21. From this date onwards, the dealer will stop accepting deposits for this model.

Toyota Avanza was launched in Vietnam in March 2022 with 2 versions MT and CVT. Of which, the MT manual transmission version costs 558 million VND, the automatic transmission version costs 598 million VND. The car was initially imported from Indonesia, then assembled at the Vinh Phuc factory from December 2022. Avanza's sales are not high. In November 2023, this low-cost MPV model sold 455 units, in the past 11 months, this model achieved sales of 3,082 units.

As previously reported, on December 20, Toyota Japan announced a temporary suspension of deliveries of all Daihatsu models sold in Japan and overseas due to safety inspection errors. A total of at least 64 models and 3 engines are affected, of which 22 are sold under the Toyota brand.

According to the published list, there are many names currently sold in the Vietnamese market such as Toyota Vios, Toyota Yaris, Toyota Veloz Cross, Toyota Wigo, Toyota Raize... but only one model is affected, Toyota Avanza. The above models are supplied by Daihatsu to other markets such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Central and South American countries such as Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Uruguay.

On the afternoon of December 20, Toyota and Daihatsu leaders had to bow their heads in apology at a press conference about this issue.