Toyota to temporarily close Czech plant over lack of parts

Toyota will close its Czech manufacturing plant for all of February due to a lack of components caused by the continuing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Japanese car maker’s Kolín facility, situated 37 miles east of Prague, produces two of its smallest offerings, the Toyota Aygo X and Toyota Yaris, and the plant's closure is expected to impact European lead times on both models. The Yaris is also produced at a Toyota factory in France.

"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.

Autocar has contacted Toyota for more information on how the UK market will be impacted by the closure. On its website, the car maker notes that customers should contact local dealers for specific model lead times.

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 (£159m) 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