Toyota Motors has announced that it would resume return to normal production levels in India by 20th May. Toyota cut down its production levels across the globe because of disrupted component supply from Japan in the wake of the earthqualke/tsunami that hit Japan earlier this year.
Shekhar Viswanathan, Dy Managing Director (Commercial), Toyota Kirloskar Motors, said: “The parts that we were not getting will start arriving in coming days. That is why we are confident of resuming normal operations earlier than expected.
Tyota had earlier announced suspension of production on Mondays and Fridays between April 25 and June 4. “We lost about 10,000 units of production across all models… Because of the production drop, the revenue loss was on an average Rs 6,50,000 per vehicle,” Viswanathan said. The loss so estimatd runs into an aggregate of 10,000 units and about Rs 650 crore.
Hiroshi Nakagawa, Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motors, said they would like to reduce the backlog resulting from the staggered production. The Company has stated: “Plans are afoot to recover the loss of production and reduce the waiting period. The plant will function on all weekdays and some of the non-working Saturdays.”
In the meantime, the company is going ahead with its plans to launch its small car Etios Liva in he last week of June as already scheduled. Sandeep Singh, Dy Managing Director (Marketing), Toyota Kirloskar Motors Ltd, said: “We are now all set to launch the Etios Liva. The launch will be as per schedule in the last week of June.”
