Toyota's attempt to rebound from a worldwide recall crisis took a double hit yesterday as Chinese regulators opened an inquiry into uncertified car parts and as an internal e-mail begging management to "come clean" came to light.
The investigation in China, which was reported yesterday by state media, could be damaging for Toyota as the company tries to compensate for its image problems in the United States and to expand into the world's largest car market. The Japanese company can ill-afford setbacks in China, where it was slow to enter the market and where rivals such as Volkswagen have a far deeper foothold.
Inspectors in Zhejiang province are understood to have searched two Toyota spare-part storage facilities run by the company's Chinese joint venture and found what they said were more than 1,700 components that had not received the official certification for sale. Toyota may be subject to fines or temporary restrictions on its activities if the allegations turn out to be true.
The emergence of an internal memo yesterday also reminded Toyota that its safety recall crisis is far from over. The e-mail, sent from one senior American Toyota executive to his Japanese superiors in mid-January, pleads with Japanese management. "The time to hide on this one is over," the e-mail said. "We need to come clean."
The emergence of the e-mail comes after a decision by US safety regulators this week to impose on Toyota the maximum possible fine of $16.4 million (£10.7 million). That judgment, punishing Toyota for its slow response to safety issues, could hurt the company as it prepares to fight scores of potentially ruinous class-action lawsuits.
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