Toyota recalls 437,000 units of Prius, other hybrids over brakes

Nobuhiro Kubo and Chang-Ran Kim Reuters 02/09/2010 07:07

Toyota Motor Corp said it is recalling nearly half a million of its flagship Prius and other hybrid cars for braking problems as it seeks to address criticism over the handling of its worst safety crisis.

The world's largest automaker is under fire for two other recalls covering more than 8 million vehicles worldwide due to problems with slipping floormats and sticky accelerator pedals.

It also faces a potential rush of litigation for crashes linked to those problems and blamed for 19 deaths and numerous injuries in the United States over the past decade.

Chastised by safety authorities and members of the Obama administration for moving too slowly on those recalls, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said he never believed the company was infallible, but it had always tried to repair defects swiftly.

"Let me assure everyone that we will redouble our commitment to quality as a lifeline of our company", Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder, told a news conference in Tokyo.

"With myself taking the lead, and by keeping to the "genchi genbutsu" principle, all of us at Toyota will tackle the issue in close cooperation with dealers and suppliers together, we will do everything in our power to regain the confidence of our customers," he said, first in Japanese, then in English.

Genchi genbutsu, meaning "go and see", is one of the five principles invoked in Toyota's management and production philosophy -- one of the most studied and copied in the world.

Toyota said it was recalling a total of 437,000 units of its 2010 Prius, Sai, Prius PHV (plug-in hybrid) and Lexus HS250h hybrids globally, including 155,000 in North America, 223,000 in Japan and 53,000 in Europe.

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