Toyota has become the target of A US inquiry into why its trucks are seemingly the vehicles of choice for terrorist army ISIS.
The Japanese automotive giant says it is cooperating with the inquiry, sparked by Land Cruiser SUVs and Hilux being repeatedly seen in ISIS propaganda videos.
The terror financing department of the US Treasury launched a probe to find out how so many Toyotas ended up in the group’s hands.
“It is impossible for any automaker to control indirect or illegal channels through which our vehicles could be misappropriated, stolen or resold,” Toyota said.
“Toyota has a strict policy to not sell vehicles to potential purchasers who may use or modify them for paramilitary or terrorist activities,” it added.
A 50-caliber machine gun mounted on a Hilux certainly falls under this policy, but there is nothing to suggest the company is selling directly to the terror group. And Toyota’s statement said it had no idea how the vehicles came to be in ISIS hands.
American broadcaster ABC suggest that the Toyotas may be either taken from Syrian militants or other sources and smuggled into the conflict zones. It also hypothesised that sympathisers are simply buying them up and sending them to the group.
Toyota not “procedures and contractual commitments in place to help prevent our products from being diverted for unauthorised military use.”
The fact that Toyota is one of the world’s largest automakers with a huge volume of vehicles sold globally every year, including a large number of 4x4s and SUVs into the middle east seems to have escaped both the US Treasury and the US network.
Join the conversation