Toyota Prius

The Facts

In early February of 2010, Japanese car manufacturer Toyota announced that he would recall 400 000 hybrid cars worldwide because of a braking problem, especially on the latest version of the Toyota Prius.

Toyota announced that the cars concerned were the Prius, the Lexus HS250h and the Prius PHV. The Japanese car manufacturer stated that a total of 223.068 cars in Japan and 147.500 in the US would be recalled.

As stated in a document handed by Toyota to the Ministry of Transports, drivers may feel brake response to be weak or late because of a problem in the anti-lock braking (ABS) system software.

This flaw was corrected in January, so that the vehicles recalled are those who were manufactured after this date.

The Prius, at the core of Toyota’s strategy

With 1.5 million vehicles sold from 1997 to 2009, the Prius is the best selling hybrid car worldwide. It is at the core of Toyota’s strategy, which goal is to sell more than a million hybrid cars worldwide per year.

Toyota knew of pedal problems since 2007

Toyota is facing lawsuits in the US as well as in Canada from drivers who accuse the firm of having concealed the accelerator pedal problem. Jim Lentz, Toyota’s US boss, admitted that Toyota knew of these problems since 2007, but that the cause was not identified at that time. He denied having concealed the information from the public.

Long considered a highly reliable manufacturer, Toyota is now facing lawsuits from American drivers who accuse the firm of having concealed the problem from them before being forced into recalling the vehicles.

First lawsuits in Europe in late 2008

Toyota first intervened in European countries. At that time, the company thought that the accelerator pedal problem concerned only the vehicles sold in Great Britain and in Ireland.

Shinichi Sasaki, Toyota’s vice president, declared that when the first lawsuits were filed in Europe in late 2008, the firm did not think that the problem was also affecting cars sold in the United States.

In America, the accelerator pedal problems are accused of having caused many accidents, one of which lead to the death of 4 persons of the same family.

Akio Toyota, Toyota’s CEO, apologized and claimed that the problem would soon be tackled.

Toyota recalled more than 8 million vehicles worldwide, which is more than its annual production.

The group had to stop commercializing as well as producing these cars.

Brand reputation has been severely damaged by this scandal, which lead to a steep decrease in sales in 2010, as shown on the graph.

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