Toyota shares up after apology, Prius recall news

Shares in Toyota Motor Corp edged higher after the head of the world's largest automaker made a public apology for safety problems and said it would bring in outside experts to review quality controls.

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But gains in Toyota's stock in Tokyo were modest in comparison to a 4 percent jump for its U.S.-listed shares on Friday following the news conference by the Toyota President Akio Toyoda. The stock has lost one-fifth of its value in the past two weeks.

Toyota, which has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with unintended acceleration, has also decided to recall its new Prius hybrid in Japan to fix a braking software glitch, a dealer said on Sunday.

It is also considering a recall for Sai and Lexus gasoline-electric hybrid models that use the same brake system as the Prius, the Nikkei business daily said on its website.

A Toyota spokesman said his company was also looking at the Sai and Lexus HS250h and declined to comment further.

The Sai sedan is the second hybrid-only model under the Toyota brand, and the HS250h is the automaker's first dedicated hybrid model under the premium Lexus brand.

As of the end of December, Toyota said 15,500 HS250h cars had been sold in Japan and overseas since its release in July. Sales of Sai, which was released in Japan in December, came to 3,800 units in the first month of its sales, it said.

Shares of Toyota were up 0.6 percent at 3,335 yen, compared to a 0.2 percent decline in the benchmark Nikkei.

(Reuters)