Toyota Adds Quality Time to Car Development Timeline

Toyota Motor Corp. is extending the time it takes to develop new vehicles by about four weeks for more quality checks in the wake of its massive safety-related recalls, a top executive said Wednesday.

Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada said the company has learned a lot in the wake of its recalls of more than 8.5 million vehicles worldwide, including the need to slow the pace at which it develops new vehicles.

Currently it takes Toyota about 24 months on average to bring a new vehicle to market in Japan, Uchiyamada said. The timeframe varies somewhat in other markets, including the U.S.

Uchiyamada, one of Toyota’s highest ranking officials who is considered the father of the automaker’s popular Prius hybrid, made the remarks during a press event with U.S. media at the company’s headquarters in its namesake city in central Japan.

Toyota has been reeling in the wake of its recalls, which bruised its vaunted reputation for quality and dented its market share in the U.S., its biggest market. The company’s largest recalls stemmed from unintended acceleration related to faulty gas pedals and floor mats. In recent months, the automaker has recalled hundreds of thousands of other vehicles, including one announced Monday to fix an engine problem in its Lexus luxury cars that could cause stalling.

Toyota executives have acknowledged that the company expanded too quickly in the U.S. before its recalls. Company officials said Wednesday that the automaker has taken a host of steps to beef up its quality controls since then.

For example, Toyota now has 1,000 people devoted to quality control as of March, an increase of about 50 percent. In addition, the company has created a 100-person committee devoted to incorporating customer feedback into vehicle development. It has also added a new layer of managers to help train and instruct engineers.

DAN STRUMPF, AP Auto Writer TOYOTA, Japan