Japan's transport ministry on Thursday conducted investigations at Daihatsu Motor Co.'s headquarters in Osaka Prefecture, a day after the small car unit of Toyota Motor Corp. was forced to halt shipments at home and abroad due to a safety test falsification scandal affecting most models in its range.
The ministry is looking into whether any production approval reports were rigged and will consider administrative penalties such as revoking approval if necessary.
"We take seriously the fact that we betrayed our customers' trust. We will fully cooperate with the inspection," a Daihatsu spokesman said.
Daihatsu said Wednesday that a third-party panel set up by the company identified 174 new instances of wrongdoing across 25 vehicle tests in addition to those already discovered, with the oldest one dating back to 1989.
The number of models affected by the falsified testing expanded to 64 -- including 15 vehicle types sold in overseas markets such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Uruguay -- from six found in April and May. It is unclear whether a recall will be required.
The company's executives said at a press conference that it is too early to estimate the scandal's impact on earnings and could not provide any clarity on when shipments could resume.
Daihatsu plans to stop production at all of its factories in Japan by Tuesday in response to the shipment halt, sources familiar with the matter said Thursday.
With the length of the production halt unknown, the automaker has started negotiations on compensation with its suppliers to ease the negative impact on their earnings, the sources said.
Of its 423 major suppliers, 47 depend on Daihatsu for more than 10 percent of their sales, with many of them small- and medium-sized businesses, according to the automaker.
The third-party panel tasked with investigating the test falsification has said the company's engineers were under intense pressure to speed up vehicle development time, which led some to falsify data.
Malaysian automaker Perodua, in which Daihatsu has a 20 percent stake, said Thursday it is discussing the potential impact of the scandal with the country's authorities as its cars were also affected by the Japanese company's misconduct.
Related coverage:
Daihatsu to stop all vehicle shipments over improper safety testing
Toyota to recall 1 million cars in U.S., citing possible air bag defect
Operations at all Toyota plants in Japan halted after system failure
