Court Charges Toyota’s Hino Motors With Emissions Fraud, Imposes $1.6 Billion in Penalties

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice on March 19 announced that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan accepted Hino Motors Ltd.’s guilty plea to a criminal conspiracy charge for defrauding the U.S. government and consumers, as well as illegally smuggling goods. The court ordered Hino Motors to pay a $521.76 million criminal fine and entered a $1.087 billion forfeiture money judgment against the company.

The Toyota subsidiary is required to serve a five-year probation period, during which the company is banned from importing its manufactured engines into the U.S., and also establish thorough ethics and compliance protocols. Hino Motors will also implement a $155 million mitigation program which will compensate for the excess carbon emissions that the company underreported. The program will aim to reduce at least 41,941 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions, 376 tons of particulate matter, 6,199 tons of carbon dioxide, and 135 tons of nitrous oxide.

In January 2025, the agency announced that Hino Motors entered a plea agreement with U.S. regulators with a settlement valued at $1.6 billion, which was subject to approval by the court. Court documents revealed that between 2010 and 2019, the company’s engineers submitted false information about engine emissions while applying for certification of compliance with the Clean Air Act. The false compliance certifications gave Hino Motors an unfair advantage over American car manufacturers and generated over $1 billion in gross proceeds.

Earlier this year, the agency voided the compliance certificates for engines manufactured by Hino between 2010 and 2019, making it the largest voiding action in the EPA’s history.