Hino to Pay 1.6 B. Dollars in U.S. over Emissions Fraud

New York, March 19 (Jiji Press)--A U.S. district court in Detroit on Wednesday ordered Hino Motors Ltd. to pay about 1.6 billion dollars in penalties over a multi-year emissions fraud scheme, the Justice Department said.

The Japanese automaker, which pleaded guilty to the fraud charges, was also ordered to serve a five-year term of probation, during which it will be prohibited from importing any diesel engines it has manufactured into the United States.

Hino, a truck arm of Toyota Motor Corp., in 2022 acknowledged that it had falsified engine emission testing and fuel economy data.

As a result of the fraud, Hino sold about 105,000 engines that did not comply with U.S. emissions standards in the United States between 2010 and 2022, the Justice Department said. These engines were primarily installed in heavy-duty trucks, it said.

"Hino's criminal conduct gave it an unfair business advantage over other law-abiding companies, including American companies, and generated over 1 billion dollars in gross proceeds," Adam Gustafson, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]