Toyota plans to cut its February production target by 200000 vehicles due to chip shortage

On January 18th, it was reported that Toyota would reduce its global car production in February by about 20% from its original plan, from 900000 to 700000, due to a global chip shortage. Although production is planned to be cut, it is up 10% over the same period last year.

As early as December 20, Toyota said it would suspend production at five Japanese plants in January because of supply chain problems, chip shortages and the novel coronavirus epidemic. In October last year, Toyota suspended all 14 car plants in Japan, while global production was cut by 40 per cent (330000 vehicles), equivalent to 40 per cent of the original production plan.

It is understood that Toyota was forced to cut production sharply from summer to autumn because of the shortage of auto parts due to the novel coronavirus epidemic, but compared with other brands, its sales grew in the United States and China. On the other hand, Toyota, together with its subsidiaries Dafa Industry and Hino Motor, sold a total of 9.56 million 2000 vehicles worldwide from January to November, surpassing Volkswagen and ranking first in global car sales for two consecutive years.

At the same time, the report quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that at present, the operation of the Tianjin plant has not yet resumed. "the situation is changing every day, and we are still making continuous statistical assessments, and it is not possible to estimate when production will resume." TM.US has production lines in Chengdu and Changchun as well as in Tianjin. "Factory production in other places will also be adjusted according to the supply situation of the parts factory in Tianjin." "We still take ensuring the safety of our employees as the bottom line, try our best to adopt a more flexible production system and inventory, and ensure supply as much as possible," the spokesman said. "

At the same time, Toyota, like other carmakers, is launching a range of electric vehicles to meet stricter emissions regulations in major markets such as Western Europe. However, unlike some carmakers, Toyota has not promised to abandon fuel vehicles altogether, and Toyota believes that some areas are not ready to switch to electric vehicles or other alternative propulsion technologies.