Nissan Motor Co. said Tuesday it plans to resume the production and shipment of new vehicles for the domestic market once it has finished preparing measures by the end of the working week to ensure uncertified workers will not inspect its cars again.
Nissan halted shipment and production at all six of its assembly plants in Japan about 10 days ago, having found that faulty inspections continued at most of the plants even after the misconduct first surfaced last month and led to a massive domestic recall.
“Production is planned to resume for the domestic market following confirmation of the measures by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism,” the automaker said in a statement.
The company said the suspension is expected to result in a 50 percent sales plunge in October, excluding minivehicles, from a year earlier.
In the scandal, uncertified workers were found to have been conducting final inspections for finished cars in violation of state rules.
To prevent further misconduct, Nissan said it will create an enclosed area for the final inspection process, with entry restricted to certified inspectors.
The automaker added that for the time being, the company will carry out external audits once a week to check whether the inspection process is conducted appropriately.
Measures to ensure the correct process is carried out have already been implemented at a subsidiary’s factory in Fukuoka, which the transport ministry plans to inspect Wednesday.
The scandal has led Nissan to issue a recall of around 1.2 million vehicles that require re-inspection.
A subsequent industry-wide probe uncovered similar malpractice at Subaru Corp., which is expected to issue a recall of 255,000 vehicles next week.
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