Toyota and Daihatsu have made far-reaching structural reforms in the wake of the latter’s crash test rigging scandal, which caused a stop-sale on all Daihatsu-developed models and impacted the near-spotless reputation of both companies. The press release stated that the move will affect the firms’ overseas business structure and reorganise Daihatsu into a “mobility company centred on mini vehicles [i.e. kei cars].”
The reforms are aimed at preventing a repeat of the so-called “procedural irregularities” by recognising “Daihatsu’s [lack of?] resources and actual conditions,” instead leveraging the company’s strengths to “build ever-better cars.” Such a statement can be read in several ways, but it essentially means that Daihatsu will withdraw from global car development and return to building kei cars for the Japanese market.
As a result of the reform, the Emerging-market Compact Car Company that spanned both Toyota and Daihatsu will be dissolved, with product planning responsibilities being shifted to the Toyota Compact Car Company. The latter will be the contractor to Daihatsu in emerging markets (such as Southeast Asia) and handle the entire process of creating future models, from development to certification.
Additionally, the business and product management responsibilities will also be transferred to Toyota’s Business and Sales Unit. The company will take over other areas related to subcontracting – including resource management and optimisation – to strengthen its partnership with Daihatsu.
These structural changes will be reflected in the renaming of the two companies tasked with developing and manufacturing cars for the greater Asia region. Toyota Daihatsu Engineering & Manufacturing (TDEM) in Thailand and Toyota Motor Asia Pacific (TMAP) in Singapore will henceforth both be named Toyota Motor Asia (TMA) and form Toyota’s Asia regional headquarters. The aim is to make the both of them self-reliant and broaden their collaboration. The reforms are expected to be completed in June.
Daihatsu had hitherto been instrumental in the development of cars for the ASEAN market, building the Daihatsu New Global Architecture (DNGA) that underpins several models sold in the region. These include the Daihatsu Rocky/Toyota Raize/Perodua Ativa, Xenia/Veloz/Alza and Ayla/Agya/Axia triplets, as well as the Toyota Vios and Yaris Cross.
The Ayla/Agya/Axia and Vios were affected by the aforementioned safety scandal, in which modifications were made to pass crash tests that were not present in production vehicles. Another crash test scandal affected the Rocky and Raize e-Smart Hybrid, whereby the results of the passenger-side side impact test were copied over to the driver’s side without repeating the test properly.
An independent panel that investigated the crisis found that the scandal was rooted in management that focused on “short-term development” and did not take measures to address the fraud. The team, it added, “did not fully grasp the actual situation on the ground and only responded on an ad-hoc basis,” leaving workers “unable to speak up when they have a problem.” The reorganisation, which relieves Daihatsu of the burden of global car development, will surely hope to draw a line under the scandal.
One aspect the press release did not touch on is Perodua. As Daihatsu’s part-subsidiary, the national carmaker played a key role in the development of cars built on the DNGA platform. Will this reorganisation diminish the company’s standing in the partnership? And will the move affect future models like the new electric vehicle and the forthcoming next-generation Bezza? Only time will tell.
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Yes. If Perodua wakes up by ending joint venture with Daihatsu and venture with reliable ones and lower maintenance cost like BYD, then will sell like hot cakes or else if still sticking with Daihatsu, then won’t be selling like hot cakes or sales will continue to go down. Time to follow same steps to Toyota
I won’t buy P2 at all till P2 will see under the bus either Toyota or even BYD.
as usual P2 will claim “we are safe, not affected”.
STOP buying P2 will make the change.
I see you calling for a boikot. Need my help? My track record has been pretty good with a particular convenience store
Rakyat Malaysia fully supports boikot for change!
Let’s just boycott for the sake of it. No need any reason just as long as we are defending our people. Not that any our party leaders are exactly poor… =)
Does this mean the end of Perodua? If so, can Perodua take Proton along with them to the abyss please so that we will no longer have national cars (not like we have the expertise anyways) and bring prices of non national brands back down like it was before. Thailand and Singapore don’t have their own national brands and they be doing just fine!
Those countries got Israel Zionist back them up.
Will see many all new Perodua Nexis in Kajang.
So all those DNGA cars not safe? How to trust what Toyota says when their Vios now is also using DNGA?
DNGA = Danger No Go Anymore
Did you even read? Toyota Vios is one of the ASEAN car model that was developed by Daihatsu. And due to this scandal, Toyota is finally going to take over ASEAN car development.
Negeri kita orang nak ambik dah
Low quality car and worst Toyota Malaysia cut corner…end up coffin car..what to do? Bad ah neh leadership
I sure hope the next generation ASEAN-market Yaris is an actual Toyota model and not end up like the current generation Daihatsu developed Vios.
Toyota has always been leading the Daihatsu and Perodua.
this is just part of the major structure change to move forward during the desire for even better quality control ahead of competitors.