Toyota halted production of the Aygo X and Yaris models in its plant in the Czech Republic, after a large fire burned down a supplier’s factory last week, causing a parts shortage.
The fire erupted on Monday, August 14, at the Novares CZ Zebrak facilities in the Beroun region of the Czech Republic. Novares CZ supplies essential plastic components to Toyota and other automakers, playing a crucial role in vehicle production.
Local media have reported that the fire resulted in damages worth 1.8 billion Czech crowns ($81,644,500), completely destroying the production and storage facilities. In response to the incident, Toyota dispatched teams to assess the extent of the damage at the affected factory. It took the firefighters 50 hours to extinguish the fire, with their efforts highlighted in a video shared on YouTube by local media outlet ČRzprávy.
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As reported by Reuters, Toyota spokesperson, Tomas Paroubek, said on Tuesday morning: “We had to stop production yesterday evening. This will of course have an effect on our production plan. It is not clear how long will the outage last”.
Despite the outage caused by the fire, Toyota employees who were previously working on the production line will maintain their regular working hours. The company has opted to assign these employees alternative tasks, including training, during this period of disruption. The objective behind this decision is to ensure that these employees are adequately prepared for the resumption of production whenever it becomes feasible.
The outage will impact Toyota’s Aygo X urban crossover and the Yaris subcompact, both of which are intended for the European market. Previously, the same premises located in Kolin, Czech Republic, were used for producing the Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1, and Peugeot 108 models, which were jointly developed by the three companies. However, after the discontinuation of the Citroen and Peugeot products, Toyota restructured the Czech plant for its own production purposes.
Autonews Europe reports that this is the second outage in Toyota’s factory in Kolin this year, following another one that occurred in February 2023. Before the production halt, the plant built 1,000 cars per day, with a total production of 202,255 units in 2022 representing an increase of 35% compared to 2021.
