Toyota plans to cut production in North America by nearly a third to the end of October due to the coronavirus crisis and expects it will take some time for output to return to normal, a news agency report said.
Toyota will build about 800,000 vehicles, including the RAV4 SUV and Camry sedan, at plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico from April through to the end of October, an unnamed source told Reuters.
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The cut is a 29% year on year reduction compared with the same seven months of 2019 and 32% lower than forecast in January for production during the period.
A Toyota spokeswoman declined to comment to Reuters on production plans.
Toyota is nonetheless gradually resuming output at its seven North American sites from Monday (11 May), the report said.
The Reuters source said Toyota planned to keep May production at less than 10% of last year's levels – after zero output in April – before ramping up to normal levels in July.
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By GlobalDataBy September, monthly vehicle production would be above previous year levels as Toyota catches up with lost output, the report said.
The US alone accounted for about 14% of Toyota global output in 2019, making it the carmaker's third largest factory hub after Japan and China, Reuters noted.
