Toyota pauses shipments of popular model driven by thousands of UK motorists after tests find ‘irregularities’

TOYOTA has paused shipments of a popular model after "irregularities" were found in its certification testing process for its diesel engines.

Three variants of the engine, used in the company's cars across the globe, have been suspended while further investigations take place.

A special investigative committee from Toyota Industries, the manufacturing arm of the business that supplies the Toyota Motor Corporation and others, announced the findings on January 29.

They related to alleged "smoothing" of the graphs that show the power and torque curves of the vehicles.

Toyota insist that there is no suggestion of any "over-stating" of these specs and add that it also has no impact on the results of their emissions tests.

However, they will be pausing new deliveries worldwide while they work with international authorities to resolve the issue.

For the UK, this means that no new orders of the Hilux model will be delivered until the discrepancy is resolved.

Sales figures show that between 6,000 and 9,000 Hiluxes sell in the UK every year, with the majority of these being the 4x4 diesel variant.

However, the company was not in a position to confirm how many orders would be affected.

A spokesperson for Toyota said: "Toyota Industries Corporation, a company affiliated with Toyota Motor Corporation, announced on Jan 29th 2024 that irregularities in horsepower output certification tests were found on three Toyota engine models.

"The irregularities concern the ‘smoothing’ of power and torque curves but did not lead to the over-stating or over-claiming on horsepower or torque values.

"Moreover, these irregularities do not have any impact on the emissions or safety of the affected vehicles.

"Toyota is working with relevant authorities to re-confirm the validity of the data used for the certification of the affected vehicles. Until such time, the further issuance of Certificates of Conformity [CoC] and the shipment of affected vehicles from manufacturing plants will be temporarily paused.

"We would like to reassure our customers by stating that we believe their vehicles are unaffected by these irregularities as they did not result in any variations in horsepower, torque or other powertrain-related values versus the homologation information shown on their vehicle’s CoC; additionally, these irregularities do not compromise the emissions, safety or driveability of their vehicles."

They went on to apologise for any "inconvenience or concern" caused.