Hino’s headaches, that have come about as a result of the revelation that the company has been fudging emission and fuel figures for decades, have got a whole lot worse, particularly for Hino Australia, which finds itself unable to sell any of its popular 500 series standard cab models or the Poncho bus for the foreseeable future.
The troubles will mean Hino will not have access to models that currently account for around 120 to 150 sales per month, or between 15 to 25 percent of its average monthly sales tally.
Hino Australia has stopped taking orders for the standard cab 500 series trucks and the Poncho and will not receive any new ones from Japan until it’s parent company completes its engagement with the authorities in Japan, over the fraud.
The president of Japanese truck maker Hino told a press conference in Tokyo this week that the Toyota owned company has ‘systematically falsified emissions data for almost two decades, indicating that the company’s fraud with emission and fuel figures, for which it has admitted, dates back as far as 2003, according to the results of its own investigation which it released released Tuesday.
President Satoshi Ogiso, made quite a show of contrition for the gathered media, bowing deeply at the hastily called news conference and apologised to customers and other stakeholders.
“I am so deeply sorry,but unfortunately, misconduct had been carried out for a widespread variety of models, ” said Ogiso.
“Teams that were developing engines knew they couldn’t meet targets and felt so pressured they falsified test results, “ Ogiso said.
“That led to more deception, as workers covered up their wrongdoing. No safety problems are believed to be involved,” he said.
Hino revealed back in March that it had faked data on government required tests on emissions and mileage, and a group of outside experts was set up to investigate.
Thw 17-page report blamed an “inward-looking and conservative culture” at the company that led to a lack of involvement and solidarity among the employees.
Experts said the company’s leadership failed to engage with frontline workers, putting numerical goals and deadlines first and sacrificing operating procedures.
Hino said it takes the findings seriously and will come up with measures to prevent a recurrence, including setting up a proper checking system, revising rules and beefing up corporate culture.
Ogiso promised to educate Hino’s workforce and nurture a more open corporate culture and proper work ethic, stressing the problem was company-wide, not just with the teams in question.
“I am determined to see that we are reborn, and we carry that out in clear action,” said Ogiso who joined Hino after a time in senior management in Africa.
The unearthed misconduct included altering durability tests related to emissions on a wide range of models and tampering with fuel efficiency information in heavy-duty engines.
Hino has recalled 67,000 vehicles in Japan related to the wrongful data. How Hino’s financial results will be impacted by the latest disclosure is still unclear, Ogiso said. Affected vehicles may total nearly 300,000 vehicles, according to Hino.
Whether he, as well as past executives, will resign to take responsibility will be decided later after a full review of the scandal, he said.
Toyota Chief Executive Akio Toyoda relayed a message, read by Ogiso at the news conference.
“The wrongdoing at Hino betrayed the trust of customers and other stakeholders. I deeply regret what has happened,” Toyoda said in the message.
Regarding models sold abroad, Hino said it was cooperating with investigations by authorities in the U.S. and Europe.
