automobiles

Toyota Motor Corp will spend us $34 million to finance the improvement of anti-pollution controls on old, publicly-owned buses in the us even though it did not manufacture them. The company has agreed to do this in order to settle a Clean Air Act lawsuit filed against it by the us government on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (epa).

The lawsuit originally involved 2.2 million 1996-1998 model Toyota and Lexus vehicles. The epa had alleged that Toyota's computerised emissions control monitoring systems did not function properly.

Toyota spokesperson Martha Voss said the Japanese company was "comfortable' with the settlement, almost sounding glad that it was well below the us $58 billion sought originally. "We wanted a project unrelated to Toyota's own business that would also improve the environment,' Voss said. Strangely, the agreement does not require the Japanese automaker to initiate any action against the vehicles that were targeted in the lawsuit.