Toyota's Kolín facility, located 37 miles (60 km) east of Prague, produces two of their smallest vehicles - the Toyota Aygo X and Toyota Yaris. The plant's closure in February, due to a shortage of necessary components caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, is expected to negatively affect the lead times of both models across Europe. Though assembled at a different Toyota factory in France, the Yaris will also be affected by this shutdown.
"Due to a shortage of components in the supply chain, we will be forced to halt production temporarily from 31 January," said Toyota plant spokesperson Tomas Paroubek, reports Automotive News Europe.
The decision comes after Toyota boosted output at the plant by 34% last year, with more than 202,000 cars rolling off its production lines.
This was a welcomed by the firm, which in 2021 took full ownership of the factory and invested more than €180 million to expand it, allowing production of the TNGA (Toyota New Global Architecture) B-platform.
This is not the first time the factory has been forced to shut, with production halted in mid-2021 as a result of the semiconductor chip shortage that scuppered manufacturing globally across several industries.
As well as the Kolín factory, the firm’s facilities in France and Turkey were also temporarily shut down then. Other car makers including Nissan, Honda and Jaguar Land Rover were also hit and mothballed plants.
Source: Automotive News
