Toyota Stops Yaris Model Sales In Thailand After Safety Concerns: Report

During a press conference in Bangkok, Toyota Motor Corp TM announced the sales and delivery stoppage of its Yaris Ativ model in Thailand.
Toyota, working with the Thai government to restart sales, took this decision after its affiliate Daihatsu rigged part of the door in side-collision safety tests, as per Reuters.
Masahiko Maeda, Toyota's CEO for the Asia region, believes that as Daihatsu specializes in producing small cars, the vehicle's relatively large size may have posed a challenge. He said the vehicles customers were using were safe, and the problem likely emerged during the development of the model.
He added, "If development had been carried out under appropriate conditions, this kind of problem would of course not have happened."
Last month, Toyota and Daihatsu disclosed the investigation related to changes in the part of the door in side-collision safety tests for about 88,000 small cars for side-on crash safety testing purposes.
Of these, around 76,000 were Yaris Ativs cars set for Thailand, the Gulf Cooperation Council (the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman) and Mexico.
Also related: Toyota Targets Baseline Production Volume of 10.6M Vehicles For 2023; Adds Hint Of Caution
Price Action: Toyota shares are trading higher by 0.33% at $138.00 premarket on the last check Monday.