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The president of Toyota apologized at a hastily arranged hers conference Friday night for the quality problems that led to the recall of more than nine million vehicles worldwide, and pledged the Japanese automaker would soon announce steps to address brake problems on the 2010 Prius.
Akio Toyoda, grandson of Toyota’s founder, spoke in his first formal remarks since the uproar enveloping his company, the world’s largest automaker, and took personal responsibility for the problems
“I deeply regret that I caused concern among so many people,” Mr. Toyoda said. “We will do our utmost to regain the trust of our customers.”
Asked whether Toyota had underestimated the situation, Mr. Toyoda said, “I believe what is happening now is a very big problem. We are in a crisis.”
Mr. Toyoda said the company would set up a committee to look at quality issues. With his comments, he became the second successive Toyota president to apologize for defects on the company’s cars — and the second to assemble a committee to address them.
In 2006, his predecessor, Katsuake Watanabe, shocked onlookers by bowing low at a news conference and vowing Toyota would improve its quality. But many of the cars involved in two recalls, one for sticking accelerator pedals, the other for floor mats that could become entangled in the pedals, went on sale after that effort.
One car now in question is the 2010 Prius, the newest version of Toyota’s most important car. The automaker said it is working on a solution to fix issues with the cars’ anti-lock brakes, which were redesigned along with the car. Toyota has sold just over 300,000 of the new Prius in Japan, the United States and Europe since it was introduced.
Company officials also are looking at two other hybrids with the same brake system, the Lexus HS250h and the Sai, a small hybrid sold only in Japan.
Mr. Toyoda is among the best-known executives in the industry, but he has been conspicuously absent from the limelight in recent weeks, even as his company struggled on three continents to contain the fallout of problems that have shaken its long held reputation for quality.
Until Friday, Mr. Toyoda’s only public comments on the company’s mounting woes came in a brief interview with a Japanese broadcaster on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Toyota’s slowness in addressing its problems has been criticized by regulators in the United States and Japan. Earlier this week, the Transportation secretary Raymond LaHood spoke with Mr. Toyoda, after sending officials from Washington to Japan in December.
“Users are noticing defects and there have been accidents,” Japan’s transport minister, Seiji Maehara, told reporters Friday ahead of Mr. Toyoda’s briefing. “This leads me to believe Toyota has not put consumers first.”
Mr. Toyoda, who spoke in Japanese and English during the news conference, said that was not the case. “I came out here today because I would not want our customers to spend the weekend wondering whether their cars are safe,” he said.
He refused to answer a question about whether the company has ever withheld information related to safety concerns. “Toyota is committed to safety,” he said.
He added in broken English: “The people who drive Toyota, who cares about Toyota, I’m a little bit worried while they are driving, they feel little bit cautious. But believe me, Toyota’s car is safety but we will try to increase our product better.”
The Japanese government has ordered the company to investigate the brakes on the Prius, as has the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Safety regulators in Washington said Thursday that they would open an investigation into the car’s brakes. Toyota said it would “fully cooperate” with the regulators’ investigation.
Under ordinary circumstances, the Prius braking problem would probably not be serious enough to prompt a recall, said David Champion, director of automotive testing for Consumer Reports, a nonprofit publication in the United States.
But given the amount of negative attention surrounding Toyota, and with two committees of the House of Representatives scheduling hearings this month about the recalls, the carmaker needs to show that it is doing everything it can to alleviate fears about its vehicles, Mr. Champion said.
