Toyota will suspend production at its Tahara and Hamura plants in Japan, where it makes the LandCruiser Prado, over the course of January.
In one of its regular production bulletins, the world’s biggest carmaker said it would suspend production at Tahara on January 9, 13, 16, 20, 23 and 27. Hamura’s line 1 will also shutter on January 10-13, 16, 20, 23 and 27.
This is a total of 16 days less Prado production in January than planned.
“We at Toyota would like to again apologise for the repeated adjustments to our production plan due to the parts shortage resulting from the spread of COVID-19, and for causing considerable inconvenience to our customers, who have been waiting for the delivery of vehicles, suppliers, and other parties concerned,” the company stated.
Toyota used the same bulletin to announce an overall January production target of 700,000 vehicles, and stuck to its Japanese fiscal year output target of 9.2 million cars – a figure it was forced to revise downwards last month by 500,000 cars.
“We will continue to closely examine and monitor the supply of semiconductors and work with related parties to consider all possible measures to ensure that we can deliver as many vehicles to our customers at the earliest date,” Toyota added.
As we reported earlier in December, both the new Ford Everest and the Isuzu MU-X outsold the (usual) top-selling Prado in November, with the former setting an all-time sales record for the second month running.
Year to date, however, the Prado remains king. With 20,132 units (up 5.4 per cent) registered through November 30, the Prado is nearly 9000 units ahead of its second-placed stablemate the Toyota Kluger (11,786 units, up 36.2 per cent).
Background
COVID and semiconductor shortages in its factories and wider supply chain have smashed Toyota lately. It has posted more than 20 production bulletins and subsequent amendments this year as it’s scrambled to navigate difficult waters.
The company acknowledges the long waits but says there’s not really a one-size-fits-all timeframe, because each dealership has different pipelines.
“Demand for new vehicles is at unprecedented levels. In Australia, to support the strong demand, Toyota Australia been working closely with our global production teams to secure as many vehicles for our market as possible,” it said.
“Wait times vary depending on the model, variant and specification requirements of each customer. The RAV4 Hybrid, Camry Hybrid, LandCruiser 70 and LandCruiser 300 are in particularly high demand and currently have longer wait times.
“Due to the evolving nature of this situation, Toyota dealers are best placed to continue to provide updates to customers on delivery timeframes for individual orders.”
