Toyota fined record $180 million for violating emissions regulations
01-15-21 | 07:59 AM
#1
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Toyota fined record $180 million for violating emissions regulations
Sound familiar?
Toyota To Pay Record $180 Million Fine For A Decade Of Clean Air Act Violations
There is yet another auto emissions scandal bubbling up, and this time it’s on Toyota. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan announced Thursday that Toyota would pay a $180 million fine for violations of the Clean Air Act. This is the largest civil penalty ever for a violation of federal emissions-reporting requirements.Toyota knowingly sold vehicles with defects while doing nothing about it, the complaint says. From about 2005 to 2015, Toyota failed to report defects that hindered how its cars controlled tailpipe emissions. This violated standards meant to protect the public and environment from pollution.
It gets worse from there. While Toyota knew about it, its employees failed to do anything about it. From the New York Times:
Toyota managers and staff in Japan knew about the practice but failed to stop it, and the automaker quite likely sold millions of vehicles with the defects, the attorney’s office said.
“Toyota shut its eyes to the noncompliance,” Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. attorney, said in a statement. Toyota has agreed not to contest the fine.
Eric Booth, a spokesman for the automaker, said that the company had alerted the authorities as soon as the lapses came to light, and that the delay in reporting “resulted in a negligible emissions impact, if any.”
“Nonetheless, we recognize that some of our reporting protocols fell short of our own high standards, and we are pleased to have resolved this matter,” Mr. Booth added.
Toyota has enjoyed a reputation for green technology and leading the way toward a cleaner environment. However, the automaker has been slow to adapt to the times. The marque supported the Trump Administration’s rollback of fuel economy standards, and it has been late to offer battery-electric vehicles.
Toyota’s missteps don’t stop there. From the New York Times:
Toyota’s more recent lineup of models has been heavy on gas-guzzling sports-utility vehicles, which come with far bigger price tags and have brought far higher profit margins. According to a recent report from the Environmental Protection Agency, Toyota vehicles delivered some of the worst fuel efficiency in the industry, leading to an overall worsening of mileage and pollution from passenger cars and trucks in the United States for the first time in five years.
Toyota is only one of many in the auto industry hit with emissions scandals. Most people will immediately remember Volkswagen’s Dieselgate as a prime example. But Volkswagen wasn’t alone, as Mercedes-Benz and BMW both faced fines for cheating emissions regulations.
It gets worse from there. While Toyota knew about it, its employees failed to do anything about it. From the New York Times:
Toyota managers and staff in Japan knew about the practice but failed to stop it, and the automaker quite likely sold millions of vehicles with the defects, the attorney’s office said.
“Toyota shut its eyes to the noncompliance,” Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. attorney, said in a statement. Toyota has agreed not to contest the fine.
Eric Booth, a spokesman for the automaker, said that the company had alerted the authorities as soon as the lapses came to light, and that the delay in reporting “resulted in a negligible emissions impact, if any.”
“Nonetheless, we recognize that some of our reporting protocols fell short of our own high standards, and we are pleased to have resolved this matter,” Mr. Booth added.
Toyota has enjoyed a reputation for green technology and leading the way toward a cleaner environment. However, the automaker has been slow to adapt to the times. The marque supported the Trump Administration’s rollback of fuel economy standards, and it has been late to offer battery-electric vehicles.
Toyota’s missteps don’t stop there. From the New York Times:
Toyota’s more recent lineup of models has been heavy on gas-guzzling sports-utility vehicles, which come with far bigger price tags and have brought far higher profit margins. According to a recent report from the Environmental Protection Agency, Toyota vehicles delivered some of the worst fuel efficiency in the industry, leading to an overall worsening of mileage and pollution from passenger cars and trucks in the United States for the first time in five years.
Toyota is only one of many in the auto industry hit with emissions scandals. Most people will immediately remember Volkswagen’s Dieselgate as a prime example. But Volkswagen wasn’t alone, as Mercedes-Benz and BMW both faced fines for cheating emissions regulations.
01-15-21 | 10:32 AM
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If so many automakers have engines/emissions that are not in compliance with these stringent idiotic over bearing standards to give buyers what they want/still make a decent profit than maybe these standards are too strict and it might be a good idea to lower them to more reasonable/realistic levels. What good does it do to keep levying heavy fines on automakers that provide millions of good paying jobs, trillions into the economy, etc aside from giving govt's/politicians more money they don't deserve. Then when the automakers go bankrupt or are facing having to close up shop from these fines/CAFE standards they are going to need a huge bailout from the taxpayers or so many jobs and billions of money to the economy will be lost. I think with electrics needlessly being forced on the public/forcing automakers to build them which are not nearly as profitable as IC cars unless they have a huge price tag we are going to see 1 if not more major auto manufactures go under in the not to distant future and China/Chinese brands of course quickly take their place which is not good for the US, Japan, or Europe.
01-15-21 | 11:03 AM
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If so many automakers have engines/emissions that are not in compliance with these stringent idiotic over bearing standards to give buyers what they want/still make a decent profit than maybe these standards are too strict and it might be a good idea to lower them to more reasonable/realistic levels. What good does it do to keep levying heavy fines on automakers that provide millions of good paying jobs, trillions into the economy, etc aside from giving govt's/politicians more money they don't deserve. Then when the automakers go bankrupt or are facing having to close up shop from these fines/CAFE standards they are going to need a huge bailout from the taxpayers or so many jobs and billions of money to the economy will be lost. I think with electrics needlessly being forced on the public/forcing automakers to build them which are not nearly as profitable as IC cars unless they have a huge price tag we are going to see 1 if not more major auto manufactures go under in the not to distant future and China/Chinese brands of course quickly take their place which is not good for the US, Japan, or Europe.
^^^^ Agree with UDel (as usual). I said long ago that I thought the industry was over-regulated. Not only that, but every dollar that an automaker pays in "fines" is one less dollar that can be spent on vehicle-design, quality-control, or paid out to their employees in wages and benefits.....and the employees/plant-workers are the ones who basically keep the automakers in business.
01-15-21 | 11:38 AM
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If so many automakers have engines/emissions that are not in compliance with these stringent idiotic over bearing standards to give buyers what they want/still make a decent profit than maybe these standards are too strict and it might be a good idea to lower them to more reasonable/realistic levels. What good does it do to keep levying heavy fines on automakers that provide millions of good paying jobs, trillions into the economy, etc aside from giving govt's/politicians more money they don't deserve. Then when the automakers go bankrupt or are facing having to close up shop from these fines/CAFE standards they are going to need a huge bailout from the taxpayers or so many jobs and billions of money to the economy will be lost. I think with electrics needlessly being forced on the public/forcing automakers to build them which are not nearly as profitable as IC cars unless they have a huge price tag we are going to see 1 if not more major auto manufactures go under in the not to distant future and China/Chinese brands of course quickly take their place which is not good for the US, Japan, or Europe.
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01-15-21 | 01:14 PM
#8
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The fine is not for an emissions failure, but for a failure to report the issue(s).
Would be interesting to know how many vehicles were affected. They missed at least 78 reports. They are required to file a report if there are 25 or more vehicles with the same defect, so that had to be at least 2000 cars (well, 1,950). Likely more. Hopefully the reporting lesson is learned.
Would be interesting to know how many vehicles were affected. They missed at least 78 reports. They are required to file a report if there are 25 or more vehicles with the same defect, so that had to be at least 2000 cars (well, 1,950). Likely more. Hopefully the reporting lesson is learned.
01-15-21 | 01:35 PM
#9
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would have hoped for a more detailed article telling us what exactly was the emissions problem and which vehicles affected. Anyway, most of the article is speculation as to how many vehicles were actually affected.
01-15-21 | 03:21 PM
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01-15-21 | 03:57 PM
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Let's try to keep this at least somewhat factual.
As per the official DOJ statement (which can be found here), this was a reporting issue that Toyota not only self-reported to the EPA after discovering it, but the DOJ/EPA has not even stated that there was material violation of anything other than reporting (to quote, "likely led to delayed or avoided emission-related recalls" - my emphasis added - they don't even claim a delay in a recall even actually happened).
No surprise that this is a slap-on-the-wrist fine then, given MB's was 2.2 billion and VW's was 14.7 billion. I mean, let's not compare these - that's an order of magnitude and almost two orders of magnitude greater fines.
The reason for this of course is that there are no facts. TMC knows it would cost more to litigate this even if nothing material occurred, so they just accept it, and of course this cost eventually gets passed on to the consumers.
The EPA of course is happy with this because they get a nice press release that makes it seem as if they are accomplishing something.
As per the official DOJ statement (which can be found here), this was a reporting issue that Toyota not only self-reported to the EPA after discovering it, but the DOJ/EPA has not even stated that there was material violation of anything other than reporting (to quote, "likely led to delayed or avoided emission-related recalls" - my emphasis added - they don't even claim a delay in a recall even actually happened).
No surprise that this is a slap-on-the-wrist fine then, given MB's was 2.2 billion and VW's was 14.7 billion. I mean, let's not compare these - that's an order of magnitude and almost two orders of magnitude greater fines.
The EPA of course is happy with this because they get a nice press release that makes it seem as if they are accomplishing something.
01-15-21 | 10:05 PM
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If so many automakers have engines/emissions that are not in compliance with these stringent idiotic over bearing standards to give buyers what they want/still make a decent profit than maybe these standards are too strict and it might be a good idea to lower them to more reasonable/realistic levels. What good does it do to keep levying heavy fines on automakers that provide millions of good paying jobs, trillions into the economy, etc aside from giving govt's/politicians more money they don't deserve. Then when the automakers go bankrupt or are facing having to close up shop from these fines/CAFE standards they are going to need a huge bailout from the taxpayers or so many jobs and billions of money to the economy will be lost. I think with electrics needlessly being forced on the public/forcing automakers to build them which are not nearly as profitable as IC cars unless they have a huge price tag we are going to see 1 if not more major auto manufactures go under in the not to distant future and China/Chinese brands of course quickly take their place which is not good for the US, Japan, or Europe.
^^^^ Agree with UDel (as usual). I said long ago that I thought the industry was over-regulated. Not only that, but every dollar that an automaker pays in "fines" is one less dollar that can be spent on vehicle-design, quality-control, or paid out to their employees in wages and benefits.....and the employees/plant-workers are the ones who basically keep the automakers in business.
01-15-21 | 10:21 PM
#13
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I don't know it's ever that simple. In this case, regulation most probably benefits the customer. Without it, the market would be in an inevitable race to the bottom and the net result would be basic, polluting, ultra-low cost and largely inefficient powerplants, because there would be nothing to incentivize (or a requirement) to deliver anything different. Components such as catalytic converters etc are expensive, but drive better emissions performance. Without regulation driving efficiency standards, a lot of additional operating cost is pushed to the customer. You don't even need to get into the environmental debate here, important as it is. Efficient powerplants drive lower operating cost for customers, and a desire to deliver efficiency AND performance resulted in some great engines. Performance and efficiency sometimes happen precisely because there is a level of regulation, not necessarily in spite of it.
Certainly, I agree that some regulations have been beneficial, and I am not in favor of doing away with all of them. Emissions-rules, for instance, at first, really screwed up the carburetors in the 70s and early 80s, but eventually gave us the much better Electronic Fuel-injection that came along in the late 1980s. EFI should have, IMO, first been used in the 1970s, when the catalysts were first added......automakers delayed about 10-15 years too long in installing it, even when the technology was there for it.
But, as I see it, there is also a line between what I consider sensible and needed regulations and things that just regulate for the sake of regulating. Case in point......constantly-tightening emissions and fuel-mileage regulations have reached the point (and actually did so about a decade ago) where we are now into classic overkill, and the amount of money, attention, and resources that have to be put into the latest demands reaches into the Law of Diminishing Returns.
Last edited by mmarshall; 01-15-21 at 10:27 PM.
01-15-21 | 10:34 PM
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Certainly, I agree that some regulations have been beneficial, and I am not in favor of doing away with all of them. Emissions-rules, for instance, at first, really screwed up the carburetors in the 70s and early 80s, but eventually gave us the much better Electronic Fuel-injection that came along in the late 1980s. EFI should have, IMO, first been used in the 1970s, when the catalysts were first added......automakers delayed about 10-15 years too long in installing it, even when the technology was there for it.
But, as I see it, there is also a line between what I consider sensible and needed regulations and things that just regulate for the sake of regulating. Case in point......constantly-tightening emissions and fuel-mileage regulations have reached the point (and actually did so about a decade ago) where we are now into classic overkill, and the amount of money, attention, and resources that have to be put into the latest demands reaches into the Law of Diminishing Returns.
But, as I see it, there is also a line between what I consider sensible and needed regulations and things that just regulate for the sake of regulating. Case in point......constantly-tightening emissions and fuel-mileage regulations have reached the point (and actually did so about a decade ago) where we are now into classic overkill, and the amount of money, attention, and resources that have to be put into the latest demands reaches into the Law of Diminishing Returns.
01-16-21 | 08:43 AM
#15
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I don't know it's ever that simple. In this case, regulation most probably benefits the customer. Without it, the market would be in an inevitable race to the bottom and the net result would be basic, polluting, ultra-low cost and largely inefficient powerplants, because there would be nothing to incentivize (or a requirement) to deliver anything different. Components such as catalytic converters etc are expensive, but drive better emissions performance. Without regulation driving efficiency standards, a lot of additional operating cost is pushed to the customer. You don't even need to get into the environmental debate here, important as it is. Efficient powerplants drive lower operating cost for customers, and a desire to deliver efficiency AND performance resulted in some great engines. Performance and efficiency sometimes happen precisely because there is a level of regulation, not necessarily in spite of it.
Buyers do not want gas guzzling, filthy, heavy polluting vehicles and manufactures aren't going to suddenly build big polluting gaz guzzlers with carburetors even if they allowed to. There was no demand for diesel cars in the US because gas prices were pretty reasonable.