‘Flip-flopping’ Toyota chief to go before Congress

Akio Toyoda, global president of the world’s largest car manufacturer, Toyota, has reluctantly agreed to testify before the US Congress after previously refusing an informal request to do so.

Toyota is struggling to deal with the fall-out from being forced to recall 8.5 million vehicles – 6m of them in the US - amid allegations that it was too slow to act after learning about the glitches, which include faulty accelerators and braking systems.

Toyoda will testify on February 24. “I look forward to speaking directly with Congress and the American people,” he said after the Japanese transport minister, Seiji Maehara, expressed his regret that Toyoda had “flip-flopped on the decision”.

In an open letter, Democrat Edolphus Towns says: "The public is unsure as to what exactly the problem is, whether it is safe to drive their cars, or what they should do about it." But Toyoda’s main problem is a former company lawyer, who worked for Toyota US until 2007. Dimitrios Biller has accused Toyota of hiding defects in its vehicles from regulators – while the car-maker in turn obtained an injunction last month preventing him from disclosing confidential documents.

Despite the injunction, these documents will be handed to the House oversight committee, which is chaired by Towns. Biller will also cooperate.

Meanwhile, Toyota faces yet another recall after the US regulators announced a preliminary investigation into complaints about steering problems in the 2009 and 2010 Corolla, the second most popular car in America. However, such probes are common and are not always upgraded to a full recall. ·