The death of a worker at one of Subaru’s production facilities in Japan last week prompted the carmaker to pause production at three of its plants temporarily.
On February 13, a 25-ton mold fell on an employee who had been working at the Yajima assembly plant in the Gunma prefecture for 35 years. The 60-year-old was identified by police who attended the accident scene and Subaru quickly paused work at three of its plants in the Gunma region.
The Yajima site handles the production of the Impreza, Outback, Crosstrek, and Forester. Subaru also paused work at the Main plant where the BRZ, Impreza, Crosstrek, WRX, and Levorg are built as well as the Oizumi engine and transmission plant. It is not yet clear if production at the sites has resumed.
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Auto News reports that the worker was operating a crane by himself and using a remote control to lift and move the massive molds. One of these molds collapsed, pinning the man against another mold. An autopsy determined that he had died of asphyxiation.
The pause in production will not help Subaru’s aim of growing production in Japan. In 2016, Subaru’s Japanese factories built 727,741 vehicles, a record for the company. This figure fell to 570,416 units in 2020 and 475,141 in 2021 but rebounded to 608,327 units in 2023. Both the Yajima and Oizumi plants will serve an important role in the company’s electrification plans.
Subaru ultimately hopes to churn out as many as 400,000 EVs annually from the two plants later this decade. Interestingly, Subaru is focusing on first building EVs in Japan rather than the U.S. which is its largest market, accounting for 70% of global sales. The downside of this is that EVs it imports into the U.S. will not be eligible for federal tax credits.
