Toyota Vietnam reiterates its cars are safe

Toyota Vietnam on Friday reaffirmed locally made cars were safe, but it does not know how many cars with faulty accelerator pedals have been imported.

Chief Executive Akito Tachibana told Thanh Nien that the accelerator pedal supplier for Toyota Vietnam was different from the supplier to the US market.

Japanese auto maker Toyota Motor Corp on January 21 recalled 2.3 million vehicles in the US market due to problems related to unintended acceleration. The faulty accelerator pedals used on Toyota’s eight vehicle models were made by US-based CTS Corp.

Tachibana said although the recall did not impact Toyota Vietnam’s business, it’s a “lesson” for his company.

The company sold 1,808 cars last month, a rise of 10 percent from a year earlier, he said.

Toyota Vietnam does not have any statistics of unofficially imported cars that are affected by the recall, Tachibana said.

The company needs more time to order replacement parts for such cars and train its staff for the needed repairs, he said.