Toyota Coaster Production Suspended?

[NomadDan]

Hi all,

I was reading Wikipedia’s page about the Coaster mini-buses, and it says that production has ended due to a new model being released. I checked the source and used Google translate to translate the press release.

弊社小型バス「コースター」の燃費性能に関するお詫びとお知らせ | コーポレート | グローバルニュースルーム | トヨタ自動車株式会社 公式企業サイト

このたび、日野自動車株式会社が開発・製造した平成28年排出ガス規制（ポスト・ポスト新長期規制）対象エンジン「N04C（尿素SCRシステム搭載）」を搭載する弊社小型バス「コースター」において、実際の燃費性能が諸元値に満たないことが判明いたしましたのでお知らせいたします。当該エンジンを搭載する「コースター」を現在ご利用いただいているお客様には、大変ご迷惑、ご心配をおかけすることとなり、お詫び申し上げます。

global.toyota

Apparently, the N04C Hino engine has been getting less than advertised fuel economy, and Toyota has stopped offering it in leu of a new model.

The press release is a bit ambiguous though (maybe it’s a Google translate thing). Is it saying there’s a new model of the engine coming out, or is Toyota working on an all new Coaster?

Anyone know if a new Coaster is in the works?

As a side note, I always thought the Coaster may work well here in North America, primarily as an airport shuttle. The Tundra 3.5TT Hybrid engine might be a good fit for it.

 

[ssun30]

Hino was caught in an emissions cheating scandal. Like VW's Diesel Gate, fixing the diesel engines to comply with emissions regulations means significantly reduced power output or fuel economy. Japanese Ministry of Transport revoked type certification for several Hino engines due to "falsifying emissions and fuel consumption data since 2003". Apparently Akio Toyota was so angry he kicked his own subsidiary out of the Japanese Commercial Vehicle Consortium along with 5 other Partners.

There is no new model since the B60/70 series was released just 5 years ago and commercial vehicles have very long model cycles. The "new model" is same bus but re-engined with 2.8L 1GD-FTV on the Hilux.

The Chinese market Coaster (arguably the largest market for Coaster) is not affected because it uses the 1GR-FE 4.0 V6 engine. The petrol engine is much smoother and is used for VIP transport.

 

[NomadDan]

Hino was caught in an emissions cheating scandal. Like VW's Diesel Gate, fixing the diesel engines to comply with emissions regulations means significantly reduced power output or fuel economy. Japanese Ministry of Transport revoked type certification for several Hino engines due to "falsifying emissions and fuel consumption data since 2003". Apparently Akio Toyota was so angry he kicked his own subsidiary out of the Japanese Commercial Vehicle Consortium along with 5 other Partners.

There is no new model since the B60/70 series was released just 5 years ago and commercial vehicles have very long model cycles. The "new model" is same bus but re-engined with 2.8L 1GD-FTV on the Hilux.

The Chinese market Coaster (arguably the largest market for Coaster) is not affected because it uses the 1GR-FE 4.0 V6 engine. The petrol engine is much smoother and is used for VIP transport.

Interesting info! I thought it seemed odd to cut production of all models, so if toyota is just ending production of the N04C powered models, that makes sense. Thanks!