The embattled scion of Toyota Motor Corp.'s founding family is admitting that the company strayed from its core values in a quest for rapid expansion.
The priorities of the world's largest auto maker are supposed to be safety, quality and volume, Akio Toyoda says in a prepared statement he will make on Wednesday while testifying to a congressional committee in Washington.
“These priorities became confused and we were not able to stop, think and make improvements as much as were able to before …” Mr. Toyoda says in the statement, obtained by The Globe and Mail.
His testimony to a committee of the House of Representatives follows the drama that played out Tuesday before another committee in Washington, where one woman broke down in tears as she told a harrowing tale of speeding down the road for six miles before she got her Lexus under control.
I will ensure that members of the management team actually drive the cars — From testimony to be delivered by company CEO Akio Toyoda
And in a startling confession at the same hearing, Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., said recalls to replace floor mats and redesign gas pedals may not entirely solve the problem of sudden acceleration. Toyota may be unable to determine the cause in as many as 70 per cent of reported complaints, Mr. Lentz said.
Mr. Lentz's appearance Tuesday, and his boss's testimony Wednesday, come as the auto maker founded by Mr. Toyoda's grandfather in the 1930s battles a firestorm of criticism about defects in its vehicles that have been blamed for sudden acceleration and more than 30 deaths in the United States.
Tuesday, while Mr. Lentz insisted that electronic throttle controls in vehicles are not the cause of the problem, members of the committee blasted the company for what they said was its resistance to the idea that electromagnetic interference can cause those systems to go haywire.
Bart Stupak, a Democrat from Michigan, said Toyota “misled the American public by saying that they and other independent sources had thoroughly analyzed the electronics systems and eliminated electronics as a possible cause of sudden unintended acceleration when, in fact, the only such review was a flawed study conducted by a company retained by Toyota's lawyers.”
Mr. Toyoda made a striking comment of his own in outlining ways Toyota will strive to make sure quality is improved.
“I will ensure that members of the management team actually drive the cars and that they check for themselves where the problem lies as well as its severity,” his statement says.
As for how Toyota lost its way, he noted that it has not spent enough time developing quality employees to design and manufacture its cars.
“Toyota has, for the past few years, been expanding its business rapidly …” his statement says. “We pursued growth over the speed at which we were able to develop our people and our organization and we should be sincerely mindful of that.”
Canada and the United States have benefited from that growth, with two Toyota assembly plants in Ontario – one of which is scheduled to double production and add 800 workers next month – and several others in four U.S. states that represent the bulk of the company's more than 40,000 employees in North America.
If Tuesday's hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee – where Mr. Lentz spoke –provides an example, the 52-year-old grandson of founder Kiichiro Toyoda will face some hostile politicians.
Members of the committee heard from Rhonda Smith of Tennessee, who was at the wheel of a Lexus during a 2006 incident when her car raced to more than 160 kilometres an hour before she was able to bring it under control. “After six miles, God intervened” and the car slowed, Ms. Smith told the committee.
Ms. Smith blasted Toyota and the U.S. regulatory agency for delays in responding to her complaints.
Mr. Toyoda expressed his condolences to a family in San Diego, Calif., at the centre of the most public and horrifying case of sudden acceleration. Four members of the family died last August when their Lexus ES350 crashed and caught fire.
That accident has been blamed on improper floor mats jamming the accelerator pedal.
With reports from The Associated Press and Bloomberg
