Hino Motors shares plunge more than 6% as data scandal widens

TOKYO  -Shares of Japan’s Hino Motors, Toyota Motor Corp’s truck and bus unit, slumped more than 6 percent on Tuesday, after a data-falsification scandal widened to small trucks.

Hino President Satoshi Ogiso said on Monday that during a transport ministry investigation additional misconduct regarding emissions was found that affects more than 76,000 vehicles.

The scandal, which came to light in March, was previously not believed to have impacted the smaller trucks, which have been sold since 2019. The automaker has said it will suspend shipments of small trucks.

The automaker said even though the engine for the small trucks was supposed to be tested at least two times at each measurement point, it was only tested once at each site.

Ogiso said the misconduct was due to lack of understanding of regulations and not intentional.

Shares of Hino dropped 6.2 percent to 590 yen ($4.29) on Tuesday.

Toyota shares fell 1.8 percent while the key Nikkei index was down 1.1 percent.

The data falsification scandal at Hino has now affected all sizes of trucks, bringing the total number of vehicles involved in the scandal to more than 640,000.

The latest small truck shipment stoppage means Hino will be pausing shipment of 60 percent of its vehicles it makes domestically.

A company-commissioned panel said in a report this month that Hino had falsified emissions data on some engines going back to at least 2003, or more than a decade earlier than previously indicated.

($1 = 137.3800 yen)