Toyota executives face Canada parliamentary committee

Toyota Canada announces a list of witnesses who will be appearing before the parliamentary committee today.

Toyota Canada described the recall process and confirms the absence of evidence of unintended acceleration caused by an electronic system of the vehicle

When they appeared before the parliamentary committee, the senior managers of Toyota Canada also describe the contribution of the manufacturer for the Canadian economy and highlights the launch of a second shift at the plant in Woodstock.

When they appeared before the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities of the House of Commons, frames superiors Toyota Canada Inc. (TCI), Toyota Motor North America (TMA) and Toyota Motors Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) were talking about the contribution to the Canadian economy and describes in detail the identification of situations regarding its products and initiating recalls process. They also confirmed that Toyota has no evidence of unintended acceleration caused by a defect in the system of electronic throttle control found on some models.

The chairman and chief executive of TCI, Yoichi Tomihara says members of the Committee that "a Canadian perspective is very important to recall and explain all the concerns surrounding this campaign, and to talk about what we will do in the future to minimize the possibility that such problems do not recur. "

The president and COO of TMA Yoshi Inaba explained that TCI operates as a separate joint venture licensed to distribute vehicles in Canada. Thus, the responsibility for Toyota and Lexus vehicles in circulation and for compliance with the laws and regulations in Canada, including the Law on Motor Vehicle Safety, TCI has responsibility. He also pointed out that Toyota takes very seriously the situation and focused on identifying the root causes of situations and the implementation of appropriate solutions. He added that Toyota is confident that the solutions it has developed address the issues.

The President of TMMC, Ray Tanguay, described the contribution of its facilities in Canada's favor and next adding a second shift at the plant in Woodstock. "Given that about 75 percent of the vehicles we produce are exported, we contribute generously to the balance of trade," said Mr. Tanguay.

The Managing Director of TCI, Stephen Beatty, described the approach of Toyota on the maintenance of products, based on a system called "Detection EARLY EARLY resolution" for Early Detection Early Resolution (EDER) in English. "This process actively scans the presence of difficulties, not just security-related, but covering all aspects of the Toyota ownership experience," said he said.

In Canada, this system EDER was improved thanks to the establishment of a data sharing agreement between TCI and all Toyota and Lexus dealers. "This unique system, closely integrated and head of the industry allows us to review and study the unusual trends in repairs. An additional system automatically alerts us of any unusual warranty activity, "stated Mr. Beatty before the Committee. "These two systems allow us to quickly detect potential problems in our vehicles. "

Additional measures include:

    * The Toyota engineers in North America who come to the site to study the situations - whether raised by Toyota customers, or by surveys of Toyota or regulators such as Transport Canada.

    * A dedicated team of engineers in the field present during the winter months in Canada that can quickly identify potential situations in our own unique climate.

    * A requirement that when a situation is identified, Toyota responds with an appropriate response.

The senior managers of Toyota have also responded to the speculation was that unintended acceleration may be the result of a defect in the system electronic throttle control (ETCS) installed in many Toyota and Lexus vehicles.

"We want to answer these questions once and for all. Every Toyota and Lexus vehicle equips our system Electronic throttle control is equipped with multiple integrated security systems which, in the eventuality of an anomaly, reduce or cut the engine rather than allowing the vehicle to accelerate involuntary way, "explained Mr. Beatty. "I want to be absolutely clear in this respect: a result of our extensive testing, we do not believe that unintended acceleration has ever occurred due to a defect in our system of electronic throttle control. "

Mr. Beatty noted that Toyota has done extensive testing on the ETCS system. He added that the robustness of the mechanisms of the integrated security system electronic control throttle in Toyota vehicles has been confirmed by the engineering firm Exponent, a world leader who leads his own independent tests.

The Woodstock plant opened in 2008 and produces the RAV4. This is the first auto assembly plant has opened in Canada since the year 1980 only six days -. March 22 - a second shift will start in action, bringing more of 150000 vehicles the annual capacity of the plant. To support the launch of the second quarter, we recruited over the last month more than 800 new team members.

The TMMC will produce more than 420,000 units annually. We will use directly nearly 7,000 crew members. In addition, TMMC does business with more than 78 suppliers in Canada, contributing to the creation of thousands of additional jobs here in Canada.

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