TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Toyota bosses debated in January when to go public over mechanical defects in vehicles, with one executive urging the auto giant to “come clean” on the problems, a report said Thursday.

The January 16 email was sent days before the company issued a string of recalls covering more than eight million cars globally over reports of sudden acceleration and other problems, said Dow Jones Newswires.

The US Transportation Department said Monday it was seeking a US$16.4 million fine against Toyota for its failure to quickly notify authorities about vehicle safety defects.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the department’s watchdog, said the company had failed to report “the dangerous ‘sticky pedal’ defect for at least four months, despite knowing of the potential risk to consumers.”

The January email was sent from Irv Miller, then Toyota’s group vice-president for environmental and public affairs, to fellow executive Katsuhiko Koganei.

“I hate to break this to you but we have a tendency for mechanical failure in accelerator pedals of a certain manufacturer on certain models,” the report quoted the email as saying.

“We are not protecting our customers by keeping this quiet. The time to hide on this one is over,” the email said.

Miller wrote that “we need to come clean” and said he believed that top company executives were heading to Washington to discuss the matter with federal regulators, the report said.

US regulators have said they met with Toyota executives in January to discuss a recall of Toyota vehicles over possible problems with accelerator pedals.

Toyota declined to comment specifically on Miller’s email but in a statement said it “did a poor job of communicating during the period preceding our recent recalls.”

“We have subsequently taken a number of important steps to improve our communications with regulators and customers on safety-related matters to ensure that this does not happen again,” it said.

The beleaguered automaker recently announced it would reshape its global operations as part of efforts to “regain consumer confidence” by boosting transparency and speeding up the recall decision-making process.