Toyota Boss Apologizes for Massive Recall

As the recall crisis threatens to further damage the company's sales and delay an earnings recovery, Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologized for the recall of millions of vehicles around the world due to so-called "sudden acceleration," while speaking on Friday during the World Economic Forum in Davos.

"We're extremely sorry to have made customers uneasy," Toyoda said. "We plan to establish the facts and give an explanation that will remove customers' concerns as soon as possible."

Toyota is putting the blame on CTS Corporation, which are said to be the suppliers of the defective brake pedals, but who have denied that their product was at fault for the problem. Global recalls of Toyota cars and trucks had risen to about 7.5 million vehicles, nearly equal to its worldwide sales in 2009.

Toyota has said the defective pedal was not used in any of its cars in Japan, Australia and Asia excluding China. The carmaker has not recalled any cars in Japan, where it uses different suppliers.

Recently, car sharing service provider Zipcar announced that it has pulled the recalled Toyotas from its fleet, as "The safety of our Zipsters is our top priority." The Company will not allow reservations for the affected Toyota vehicles in the Zipcar fleet until the accelerator malfunction has been appropriately resolved by Toyota.

This recall impacts approximately 5 percent of the Zipcar fleet, specifically the 2009 and 2010 Toyota Matrix. According to a company statement, Zipcar will continue to monitor the recall closely and follow Toyota's recommendations.