Toyota cheated on forklift engine emissions, US lawsuit claims

Toyota has been sued in a proposed US class action that accuses the Japanese automaker of cheating on emissions in nine engines for its forklifts.

A complaint was filed by forklift buyers late Sunday in federal court in San Francisco against Toyota and its affiliate Toyota Industries, the world’s largest maker of forklifts.

It came after an internal Toyota probe found in January that the company sometimes made software changes or substituted different engines in emissions tests, allowing forklifts to perform better there than in the real world.

Toyota suspended some sales of forklifts in Japan in March 2023 due to emissions concerns.

But the plaintiffs said its misconduct first came to light after an investigation by the US Environmental Protection Agency, although US regulators have not brought any enforcement action.

“Toyota tried to limit the damage to Japan,” but its “toxic culture of fraud, negligence and noncompliance” undermined forklift engine certifications in all markets, including the United States, the complaint said.

Toyota had no immediate comment Monday. Attorneys for the plaintiffs also had no immediate additional comment.

The plaintiffs are Broadmoor Lumber & Plywood, Marders and Ferraro Foods, which are, respectively, a South San Francisco landscaping supply company, a Bridgehampton, New York nursery, and a Piscataway, New Jersey, Italian food distributor.

All said they would not have bought Toyota forklifts if they had known the vehicles did not meet emissions standards and performed worse than advertised.

The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and full refunds.

Toyota’s internal probe found that Toyota Industries’ engine division had an “entrepreneurial mentality” and a climate of “trivializing industrial vehicles”, which left executives with “low risk sensitivity” to emissions rules.

The case is Broadmoor Lumber & Plywood Co et al v. Toyota Industries Corp et al, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 24-06640.

(Reporting by Stempel in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)