KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 — Perodua said the side-impact safety rating of its new Axia city car was not affected by the exposure of Daihatsu Motor Company Ltd’s rigging of collision tests that were said to also involve the Malaysian model.
On Friday, Toyota Motor Corp disclosed that the affiliated Daihatsu had secretly modified models submitted for side-impact testing, which affected around 88,000 vehicles, including Perodua Axias manufactured after February.
Perodua president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Ahmad said today that the company has received confirmation that the discovery did not alter the technical safety of its Axia models.
“We were assured that despite the revelation by Daihatsu, the UN-R95 certification given to the Perodua Axia is intact.
“This means that the Perodua Axia is safe for driving and no recall will be issued nor will Perodua stop delivery of this new model to our valued customers,” he said in a statement today.
The UN-R95 certification governs a vehicle’s safety rating for lateral collisions and forms one part of the Asean New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP).
Zainal also offered Perodua’s apology for any distress that the news of Daihatsu’s test rigging caused and pledged to provide regular updates on further developments on the matter.
According to news reports, the secret modification came to light due to a whistleblower’s complaint at Daihatsu, which said it has notified regulatory agencies and stopped shipment of affected models including Toyota Yaris Ativs made in Thailand from last August, and Axias built in Malaysia since February.
Daihatsu said the models would undergo new tests to confirm their safety before shipments were resumed.
