Sales California was to promote their air conditioner systems as options in Japanese-made vehicles. In May 1975, Denso Corporation opened a sales division, Denso Sales, in Southfield, Michigan. In September 1975, Denso International America opened a service center in Cedar Falls, Iowa. This was opened due to an agricultural parts contract with John Deere that included starter motors and meters. Denso International America employs over 17,000 people at 38 locations between North, Central, and South America. At year end, on March 31, 2008, combined sales totaled $8.3 billion for all American locations. Motorsports As Denso is a part of the Toyota Group, it also assists Toyota in participating and developing their cars for different motorsports categories. Denso manufactures customised electronics and different auto-parts specifically for Toyota-Lexus motorsports development divisions Toyota Racing Development and the European motorsports facility of the company Toyota Gazoo Racing previously named Toyota Motorsports GmbH located in Germany. Denso plays a vital role as an OEM by specifically engineering auto-parts and electronics for Toyota in motorsports which mainly include spark plugs, starter motors, fuel pumps, alternators, Engine Control Module (ECM) computer systems, engine & transmission sensors and many other high-performance automotive and motor racing equipments and accessories for Toyota to compete in a variety of motorsports categories which include NASCAR, Formula One (from 2002-2009), World Rally Championship, and World Endurance Championship. The Toyota TS030 Hybrid, using a Denso kinetic energy recovery system, finished second in the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans. Denso products are also used in many local Japanese motorsports, including Super Formula and Super GT. Controversies Price fixing On January 30, 2012, the US Justice Department announced after two years of investigation that it had discovered part of a massive price fixing scheme in which Denso and Yazaki played a significant role. The conspiracy, which fixed prices and allocated components to such car manufacturers as Toyota and Honda, extended from Michigan to Japan, where it was also under investigation. Denso agreed to pay a fine of $78 million. Fuel pump lawsuits In August 2020, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Quebec over alleged defective fuel pumps in a number of Acura, Honda, Lexus, Subaru, and Toyota vehicle models. A separate fuel pump lawsuit was filed for the remaining areas of Canada. See also FC Kariya References External links Wiki collection of bibliographic works on Denso Auto parts suppliers of Japan Robotics companies of Japan