Toyota Motor Corporation this week announced it has been forced to suspend production at a third vehicle assembly plant in Japan due to component shortages, following an explosion at a plant owned by an affiliated component manufacturer.
On Monday Toyota revealed that it had suspended operations on three production lines at two vehicle assembly plants in Aichi Prefecture, affecting production on the RAV4 and the Harrier SUV models.
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Since then, production has also been halted at a plant in Kyoto Prefecture owned by Toyota’s small car subsidiary, Daihatsu Motor Company, affecting production of the Toyota-branded Pro-Box and the Mazda Familia van among other models.
Toyota has not been able to confirm when it would be able to resume operations at these plants. The stoppages have been blamed on an explosion last week at a plant belonging to Chuo Spring Company Ltd, a manufacturer of suspension parts, killing one employee. The explosion is reported to have occurred in a dust collector at the plant.
This was the second such accident in two years at Chuo Spring, after an explosion occurred at one of its facilities in October 2023 – forcing Toyota to halt production on 13 lines at eight domestic vehicle assembly plants.
