Toyota may spend $440 million on U.S. recall: media

Tokyo (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp may need to spend about 40 billion yen ($440 million) to fix the accelerator pedals on 3.8 million cars being recalled in the United States, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Toyota announced last month that it would recall some 3.8 million vehicles in the U.S. because of a risk that a loose floormat could force down the accelerator, a problem suspected of causing crashes that killed five people.

Toyota has not given an estimate of the cost.

The world's largest carmaker has been urging vehicle owners to remove the floor mats, but is now considering stepping up its response to fix the accelerator pedals, a move that could cost it about 40 billion yen, the Tokyo Shimbun reported.

A Toyota spokesman said it has not made any decisions to change how it handles the recall.

Shares of Toyota rose 0.6 percent to 3,600 yen, outperforming a 0.3 percent fall in the benchmark Nikkei average.

The recall includes the hot-selling Prius hybrid and is the largest ever for Toyota, which has built a reputation for safety and quality that helped it surpass General Motors as the world's top automaker last year.

Toyota will start discussions with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on which models and how many cars will need the fix, the Tokyo Shimbun said.

The recall comes at a critical time for Toyota as it scrambles to squeeze spending to bounce back from record losses amid an industry-wide slump in car sales. Toyota is forecasting a net loss of 450 billion yen for the financial year to March.

($1=90.65 Yen)

(Reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Chris Gallagher)