Toyota is planning to idle two plants in the US and its UK factory and is reviewing other European output because sales have been hit in the wake of the company’s global recall crisis.
The company will suspend output for one day at its Kentucky plant producing Camry, Avalon saloons and the new Venza crossover, and is considering adding three more non-production days in March and April.
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At its Texas plant, where the Tundra light truck is produced, production will halt for 10 days in March and April according to various media reports on Wednesday.
“We can’t allow inventory to build up too high,” Toyota spokesman Mike Goss told the Wall Street Journal.
Toyota’s UK plant in Derbyshire employs 3,500 and is about to start building the Auris (Corolla) hybrid, the first UK-made mass market hybrid, which will be unveiled at next month’s Geneva motor show. The automaker also has an engine plant in the UK which employs 500.
European plants are in Valenciennes in northern France where the Yaris is made, Turkey which builds the Verso plus some variants of the Corolla/Auris, and a joint venture with PSA Peugeot Citroen in the Czech Republic where the Aygo city car is built alongside the Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1 clones.
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By GlobalDataToyota is recalling more than 8m cars worldwide with faults ranging from sticking throttles and sliding floormats to perceived braking problems on its Prius, the world’s best-selling hybrid.
Toyota’s president Akio Toyoda is due to provide an update on the progress of the massive recalls at a news conference on Wednesday.
Earlier this month the company temporarily halted production in North America of several models whose sales were suspended over sticking accelerator pedals.
Toyota also suspended production of the Sai and the Lexus HS250h in Japan on Saturday until it developed a fix for their faulty braking system.
