Toyota Subsidiary Hino Faces A $525 Million Penalty For False Emissions Data

Commercial truck manufacturer and Toyota subsidiary Hino Motors is under fire from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and US Department of Justice for falsifying emissions data from 2010 to 2019 and failing to meet fuel economy standards. According to an announcement from NHTSA, Hino will have to pay a total of $1.6 billion for its wrongdoing, which the truckmaker will admit as part of the agreement. Of note, models like the Toyota Tundra and Tacoma have nearly nothing to do with the Hinos sold here.

The Feds Showed Up For This Fight

In addition to NHTSA, several government agencies investigated any potential wrongdoing on Hino’s part, among them Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Justice, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The government’s complaint stems from Hino’s inability to meet NHTSA’s fuel consumption requirements and, as Hino admitted, for submitting false or fraudulent emissions testing data for the 2017 and 2018 model years of its J05E engine, among others. The turbodiesel 5.1-liter inline-six appeared primarily in the now-discontinued Hino 155 and 195 cab-over trucks, where it made 210 horsepower and 440 pound-feet of torque. Ironically, it was also available as a hybrid, the environmental friendliness of which Hino touted a lot.

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The $1.6 billion judgement against the company represents the total of all criminal and civil suits related to the emissions scandal. Of that, $525 million will go to NHTSA, representing the largest civil suit the agency has ever been involved in. As part of the criminal and civil settlements, Hino admitted to submitting false engine certification applications from 2010 to 2019, for which Hino engineers regularly fabricated data without conducting any actual testing. Hino also submitted false carbon dioxide test readings, which meant its engines were graded under a different, more lenient fuel economy rubric than would have been accurate. According to the Department of Justice, Hino imported 105,000 non-conforming engines in the US between 2010 and 2022, which were used in trucks and boats.

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How Is Hino Fixing The Problem?

Much of the money Hino is paying will go toward mitigation, where the company will replace dozens of older, dirtier marine and locomotive engines with modernized replacements. Hino will also install idle reduction technology on 135 locomotive engines to further improve their emissions, and the company will also recall all affected 2017-2019 medium-duty trucks to ensure they meet applicable standards.

These days, Hino only imports medium- and heavy-duty conventional-cab trucks to the US, both of which use engines from Cummins instead of supplied in-house. The medium-duty L-Series has a 6.7-liter Cummins inline-six, while the heavy-duty XL uses the engine manufacturer’s L9 8.9-liter six-cylinder. The supplier is better known in automotive circles for its partnership with Ram, which uses an optional 6.7-liter turbodiesel six in the 2500 and 3500. That engine is related to the commercial-spec one found in today’s Hino medium-duty trucks. Speaking of Cummins, it seems as though that company is learning from its mistakes, as the smaller B6.7 engine meets the EPA’s more stringent 2026 emissions criteria already.

Source: NHTSA, the Department of Justice