Toyota will suspend production for both shifts working in Japan on Tuesday, March 1. The stoppage will affect 28 assembly lines across 14 factories. Toyota cites a "system failure" at the supplier Kojima Industries Corporation. A report from the Nikkei says that the problem is actually due to a cyberattack against Kojima Industries.
"We will also continue to work with our suppliers in strengthening the supply chain and make every effort to deliver vehicles to our customers as soon as possible," Toyota said in its statement about the production halt.
Motor1.com reached out to Toyota Motors North America for clarification about to what extent this shutdown affects the company in the United States. A spokesperson responded saying: "At this point, there is no impact to production in North America."
According to the Nikkei story, Toyota doesn't yet know whether it can begin manufacturing vehicles again on Wednesday, March 2. Just for the stoppage on Tuesday, the automaker is losing around 13,000 vehicles worth of production, the statement to Motor1.com says.
"It is true that we have been hit by some kind of cyberattack. We are still confirming the damage and we are hurrying to respond, with the top priority of resuming Toyota's production system as soon as possible," a person close to Kojima Industries said to Nikkei.
As of this writing, the website for Kojima Industries is not online. It is not clear who the person or people behind the cyberattack are. According to Bloomberg, the company makes "battery packs, inverter covers, insulators, ring gears, registers, door pockets, cup holders, switch bases, cowl louver, overhead consoles, and antenna modules."
In Japan, high demand is pushing the waitlist to get a new Lexus LX or Toyota Land Cruiser out to four years. When previously asked by Motor1.com, a Lexus spokesperson said that the issue didn't impact the delivery or launch of the LX 600 in the US.
Toyota experienced some delivery delays because of the protests against Canadian COVID mandates along the border with the US. This issue affected several automakers.
