Toyota wants to resume production at its North American facilities on April 20, The Detroit Bureau reports.
Like most car manufacturers around the world, Toyota has been forced to close its automobile and components plants in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico because of the coronavirus pandemic. Their decision to resume production on April 20 comes shortly after Ford said it wants to restart North American production on April 6, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is targeting an April 14 restart.
While Toyota is aiming for April 20, it has left open the possibility of rethinking its plans if the situation changes.
“We will continue to monitor the situation and take appropriate action in a timely manner,” Toyota said in a statement.
Toyota employs approximately 47,000 people across its North American operations, with 32,000 of these being involved with its manufacturing operations. The brand did not specify if all of its factories will immediately return to pre-coronavirus levels of production once they start up again.
Word of Toyota’s production re-start plans comes shortly after data published by J.D. Power pointed to retail auto sales in the United States being on pace to drop 45 per cent at the end of the month, compared to levels from a year ago. Things could get even worse in the coming months, with estimates suggesting year-over-year sales may drop by 78 per cent in April and 75 per cent in May.
