Toyota forced to recall 690,000 of its cars in China

Tuesday, 25 Aug 2009 10:46

The Yaris is one of the models that Toyota has had to recall in China

Toyota was forced into an embarrassing product recall in China yesterday after it revealed the window controls on 690,000 of its cars could short-circuit and catch fire.

The recall affects Camry and Yaris models built at factories in China and will damage Toyota’s reputation in the world’s fastest growing car market.

The recalled vehicles include 281,000 Vios and Corollas. All the cars were produced at Toyota’s joint ventures with Guangzhou Automobile Industry Group and Tianjin FAW. The components were produced in China.

There is no suggestion that any British cars will have the same defect, Toyota produced 547,000 cars in China last year, all of them for the domestic Chinese market.

The problem with the recalled cars appears to be overlubrication of the electric window switch. Toyota said grease could slide into the electronics and cause a short circuit although no switches had burst into flames.

Toyota was perviously forced to recall 260,000 Chinese-built cars in April because of a problem with the brakes.

Private car ownership in China has grown at about 20 per cent annually since 2000, leading Japanese carmakers to increasingly focus their attentions there as their own domestic market contracts.

Toyota has also repositioned itself to benefit from emerging market growth. Reports on Monday suggested that Toyota was planning to manufacture a “low-priced family entry car” in China, Thailand, India and Brazil. It is also planning to move more of its engine production from Japan to the United States.

Japanese carmakers have been competing aggressively in China, where domestic companies are rapidly improving their products and boosting production. Reliability has been a key factor in the sale of Japanese cars over domestic manufacturers.

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