Toyota US Production to Be Interrupted

The freeze in production at Toyota's Japan plants, caused by the disaster on March 11, will soon expand to the US. The Japanese auto maker announced today that it has informed its American associates that production interruptions are to be expected, even if it is too early to say which facilities, when and for how long they will be affected.

“We continue to assess our supply base in Japan following the earthquake/tsunami. Today, we communicated to team members, associates and dealers here that some production interruptions in North America are likely. It’s too early to predict location or duration,” Toyota said in a statement released on Thursday.

The car maker is betting on the production queue in the US, which in turn relies on American-based parts suppliers. The vehicles it produces in North America use parts from 500 local suppliers. As for the stocks of cars Toyota has in the US to support the demand, the company says that, for now, they are sufficient.

Separately, on Thursday Toyota confirmed that the launch of the Prius v wagon in Japan would be delayed indefinitely. The launch date for the US market, the end of the summer, remains in place for now.

“Toyota announced today that it decided to postpone launch of the Japan-market Prius-derivative vehicle originally scheduled for launch in late April.  No decision has been made at this time on when the launch will be rescheduled,” the car maker stated in a separate press release. “We're making every effort to minimize disruptions to our overall operations.”